Yilport Holding has continued to execute its Phase 1 investment of over €20m (US$22m) at the San Cataldo Container Terminal (SCCT) in Taranto, Italy, despite the COVID-19 lockdown.
The company has also opted to advance Phase 2 expansion to complete the overall investment of €75m (US$82.9m) before the project timeline of five years.
The crane revamping project was scheduled for the end of 2019, however the pandemic delayed the investment programme and Konecranes’ engineering team arrived in Taranto to start in May 2020.
Yilport Holding has collaborated with Konecranes, following Italy’s gradual steps toward normalization, to speed up efforts to welcome the first container vessel of CMA CGM in July 2020.
Konecranes’ focus is to recondition the terminal equipment for high operational efficiency as the equipment has not been in use for seven years.
Additionally, seven ship-to-shore (STS) cranes will be revamped and repainted in Yilport Holdings coloured, relocated to the new berth and commissioned for service.
The rail infrastructure and national railroad connection will also be revamped and repairs and civil construction work is underway, as well as a new electric supply line and upgraded water treatment system.
The total revamping project is estimated to be completed in one year and, at the end, SCCT will have revamped seven STS cranes, 17 rail-mounted gantry (RMG) cranes, one mobile harbour crane (MHC), two reachstackers, two empty container handlers and all existing terminal tractors and trailers.
SCCT is a deep-sea terminal with a minimum draft of 15 m and is one of the closest terminals in the Mediterranean to main trade lanes through Gibraltar and the Suez canals.
It has 1m sq m of land area and offers access to the highway network as well as five active rail platforms that connect SCCT to the national railway system and thus the Northern European overland.
SCCT can serve ultra large container vessels with -16.5 m draft and will offer 160,000 sq m of CFS and empty container services area, providing stuffing, stripping, inspection, M&R, sweeping, cleaning, CFS and empty container inspection.
In addition to containers, Yilport plans to provide service to bulk cargo, general cargo, roll-on roll-off (ro-ro) cargo, project cargo and project cargo at SCCT.
