Third Gottwald Model 7 for Atakaş

Turkish port operator Atakaş Port Business has ordered a Gottwald Model 7 portal harbour crane from Finnish crane manufacturer Konecranes. The crane follows two rubber-tyred Model 7s that the operator took delivery of in 2018, and the contract includes an option for another crane at a later date.

Starting mid-2019, the new Model 7 will be used at the port operator’s Iskenderun site, on Turkey’s southeast coast, where it will mainly be used to handle bulk and serve large container vessels.

The latest crane is a rail-mounted, four-rope G HSK 7528 B with lifting capacities of up to 125 tonnes, a 50 tonne grab curve for mechanical grab operation, and an outreach of up to 54 metres. The crane’s portal has a clearance of 6 m and the track gauge measures 14 m. To compensate for the different rail loadings due to the crane offset in relation to its portal, the bogies on the quay side are fitted with eight wheels each and on the land side with six, Konecranes said.

Vedat Ohri, general manager of Atakaş Port, said, “Our aim is to provide the greatest benefits to the Mediterranean, Central Anatolia and Southeastern Anatolia regions. To meet our goals, we have chosen reliable and high-performance Konecranes Gottwald mobile harbour crane technology once again. We started our operations with two flexible rubber-tired cranes to handle various types of cargo, but now need rail-mounted cranes for continuous-duty bulk handling. To enable the new crane to work on our rails, Konecranes will team its mobile harbour crane technology with a portal exactly designed to our needs. We are also preparing to load and unload large container vessels with up to 18 rows at a later date.”