Quay cranes No 10 and 12 will be operational by the end of this month.

A further two quayside cranes have also been scheduled for delivery to PTP in November bringing the total by year-end to 14 quay cranes.

The 14 quay cranes are all of Super Post Panamax type and have an outreach of 53 metres with a lifting capacity of 50 tonnes.

With 14 Super Post Panamax quayside crnaes operational at PTP by end 2000, handling capacity will be approximately 2.6mil TEUs per annum.

With berths 5 and 6, the last two berths of PTP's Phase One, scheduled to be operational by early 2001, PTP will by then be well equipped to handle annual volumes in excess of two million TEUs.

Initial planning for full Phase One completion was 18 quay cranes for PTP's 2.16 km of linear wharf length.

With shipping lines taking delivery of more Super Post Panamax vessels, PTP is currently planning on increasing the number of cranes to a maximum of 24 quay cranes, ensuring at least four cranes for every 360 metres of wharf.

The additional quay cranes will also be designed towards new specifications with a longer outreach to handle even larger vessels in current planning and also twin spreaders that would be able to lift two twenty foot (TEU) containers simultaneously