$15m crane steams into Port of Tauranga

Port of Tauranga staff help unload parts of a new 850-tonne gantry crane which will be put together like a massive Meccano set. Photo/Port of Tauranga

Another stage of the Port of Tauranga's $170 million growth programme is complete with the arrival of a 850-tonne, multi-million dollar crane capable of handling some of the world's largest ships.

The Liebherrship-to-shore gantry crane arrived at the Port in pieces at 1am yesterday after travelling from the southwest coast of Ireland.

It will be off-loaded during the next few days, before being put together like a "massive Meccano set," according to chief executive Mark Cairns.

Mr Cairns told the Bay of Plenty Times it was the port's seventh gantry crane, the precursor to a 50 million cubic metre dredging programme expected to start towards the end of the year.

"This is us getting ready for dredging, which will give us the capability to one day host 8000 TEUs [twenty-foot equivalent containers]," he said.

"This crane is a significant piece of infrastructure.

"Once it is offloaded we will start piecing it together, then erecting it and skidding it over to the wharf where it will live."

"Once in, it will have the capacity to lift two containers at once or one large container weighing up to 80 tonnes.

"It will give us the flexibility to handle vessels at berth if a ship is behind schedule or bad weather slows us down."

The crane had an outreach of 48 metres, which meant it would be able to handle ships 18 containers wide, Mr Cairns said.

The first stage of the Port's dredging programme was expected to start towards the end of the year.

The initial dredging work would give access to ships with a capacity of up to 6000 TEUs.

The biggest ships currently using the port carry about 4500 TEUs.

"We are currently trying to secure terms with larger customers so they can determine what kind of debt to take on with the dredging before we go further," he said.

"If the demand is not there just yet we will spread it out over a number of years.

"Once we have the need, have the terms, we will go to market and tender, most probably in Europe or the East.

"We expect to make that decision in the next couple of months and will likely begin to dredge towards the end of this year."