AAL Shipping completes multiple crane shipments

AAL Shipping (AAL) has transported heavy lift cranes and related components for port and terminal development projects worldwide.

These have included an operation to move four 439-tonne Liebherr shore cranes from Shuaiba in Kuwait to Haiphong in Vietnam for a new dry dock facility. A second operation comprised two shipments of six new-build Kalmar Automated Stacking Cranes (ASC) from Taicang and Shanghai to Melbourne, Australia, for a container terminal expansion programme.

Yahaya Sanusi, deputy head of transport engineering at AAL, says: ‘This operation involved the transport onboard the 31,000dwt heavy lift mega-size ‘AAL Melbourne’ of four second-hand Liebherr crane units. Three of the units were the LMH 500 series and the other an LMH 550. These are some of the biggest cranes in the series, each weighing more than 400 tonnes, 35 metres tall and featuring a jib length of close to 55 metres.’

AAL also recently shipped three ASCs, each 35 m wide and 215 tonnes, from Taicang in China to
Melbourne, onboard the 31,000 dwt heavy lift mega-size ‘AAL Hong Kong’. A second sailing is planned
with sister vessel ‘AAL Shanghai’ in early July to transport three further cranes of the same type into
the Victoria State Capital from Shanghai.

All six cranes are being shipped for cargo handling solutions
provider Cargotec for use in Melbourne’s Victoria International Container Terminal (VICT), as part of an ongoing expansion programme.

Source: Cyann Fielding, AntwerpXL 2023