APM Terminals in Los Angeles. Photo credit Port of Los Angeles
The first of ten ship-to-shore (STS) cranes at the APM Terminals Los Angeles Pier 400 facility was raised 33 feet (10 meters), making it the tallest port crane in North America and will be ready for vessel operations in the next few months.
The crane heightening project is designed to prepare for regular Ultra-Large Container Vessel (ULCV) calls in the trans-Pacific trade lanes, carrying up to 20,000 twenty-foot equivalent containers (TEUs) per vessel. For context, the largest ships that could be served prior to the upgrade were vessels carrying an average of 13,000 TEUs.