Posted on June 16, 2021
SEATTLE — By any measure, the four seaport cranes that arrived recently at the Port of Seattle from Shanghai, China on a specialty-built flatbed boat are impressive, but they will now make it possible for our port to accommodate the largest container ships ever made.
“These are the largest cranes in the world,” said Bob Watters, senior vice president of SSA Marine, the port’s largest terminal operator. “They can handle the largest ships sailing on any of the seas in the world right now.”
The cranes will play an important role in the port’s $1 billion expansion of Terminal 5, the closest docks to West Seattle.
The equipment stands 316 feet tall and has a 240-foot outreach boom that can lift 100 tons of cargo at once.
“If you are going to be in containers into the future, you have to be big ship ready,” Port Commissioner Fred Felleman said.
When completed, Terminal 5 will feature two berths.
The most northern berth where the cranes will be loaded in place on their permanent rails are expected to open in spring 2022.
“One of the real strengths of Terminal 5 is it has one of the best on-dock rail facilities of anyplace in the Pacific Northwest,” Watters said, adding that 50 to 60 percent of cargo coming into the port leaves by rail.
The Northwest Seaport Alliance, which includes Seattle, is in heavy competition for cargo traffic with the Canadian ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert.
“Much of their cargo leaves by rail to the American Midwest, so the Alliance is in competition for that,” Watters said.
The cranes represent a boost to port capacity and offloading efficiency.
Said Felleman: “These larger ships carry more containers, so you don’t need as many ships going back and forth, which will be good for the environment as well.”
The port has seen a 40 percent increase in imports during the first quarter of 2021 compared to 2020. Much of it due to people spending much of the COVID pandemic sitting at home and buying items merchandise online that is made overseas.
That has contributed to the backlog of ships at West Coast ports, including Seattle, that are now waiting to be offloaded.
“If it (Terminal 5) was operational, we wouldn’t have this backlog right now,” Felleman said.
The wait for an offload job at Seattle’s port is reported to be one to three days. In comparison, the wait for offload in Los Angeles is said to be one to two weeks while the Port of Oakland is reporting waits of up to three weeks.
