The upcoming Tibar port in Timor-Leste has taken delivery of six gantry cranes manufactured by Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries.
Costing US$23 million, the cranes arrived last week as the construction, which is being overseen by China Harbour Engineering Company, enters its final stages.
Two will be installed on the quay – for unloading and loading ships – and the other four will be used for handling containers in storage.
The two quayside gantry cranes each weigh approximately 1,500 tons, with a 50-metre boom and the capacity to lift 63 tons. Both can handle two 20-foot containers at the same time and have the capacity to load and unload 90,000 containers per year, or almost 250 per day, much more than the number of containers currently arriving in the country.
Four electric park gantry cranes were also delivered for handling containers.
The port, located 15 kilometres to the west of Dili, has also received two tugboats, the VB FADO and VK LIKURAI, made in Vietnam.
The complex unloading operation was witnessed by Timorese Prime Minister, Taur Matan Ruak.
Additional equipment is set to arrive this week, including a mobile harbour crane for unloading bulk cargo and 10 tractors for handling containers within the port.
The project suffered some delays, largely caused by restrictions imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, although by the end of April 80 per cent of the construction had already been completed.
Overall progress, including construction, equipment, personnel mobilisation and the port’s computer operating system, was 75 per cent complete at the end of last month, with construction expected to end in November this year, when full operations are set to begin.
Around 1,000 workers are currently employed in the construction of the port, of whom around 600 are Timorese.
This port will have a wharf 630 metres long and 15 metres wide, a 27-hectare container yard, a storage capacity of 20,000 containers, and an annual capacity of up to one million containers.
The construction of the port will cost around US$400 million and the French company Bolloré Consortium is in charge of the works, CLBrief reported.
