Economic boom crane

A US$5 million Liebherr mobile harbour crane has been installed in Maui, Hawaii following an economic upsurge on the island.

Ocean transport company Matson Navigation installed the LHM 400 at the port of Kahului to strengthen its container handling capabilities. It has a 104 tonne maximum lifting capacity at 22 m outreach. Maximum outreach is 48 m and the crane was transported by barge from Rostock, Germany, to Kahului.

The crane will complement Matson's inter-island container barge service and improve the level of service to and from neighbouring Hawaiian islands. Gary North, senior vice president at Matson's Pacific division said, “Maui's economic growth in recent years has resulted in increased cargo volumes through its primary port, Kahului, as well as rises in vessel calls by the passenger sector.”

He continued, “Our main objective is to explore new ways to promote that growth through service enhancements and port development initiatives. In 2004 we introduced a direct long haul ro-ro service to and from Maui and the West Coast, reducing transit time and eliminating the trans-shipment process for rolling stock in Honolulu.

“With this new crane, we will now have the capability of expanding this service enhancement to include container operations for our combination ro-ro/container vessels calling at Kahului. In addition, we can improve productivity of our Kahului container barge operations and reduce container trans-shipment activity in Honolulu,”North added.