Port Decongestion: MPS takes delivery of ship-to-shore cranes
As part of efforts to decongest the port and make operations more efficient, Meridian Port Services (MPS), has taken delivery of two new ship-to-shore (STS) cranes to enhance its services.
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Alhaji Asoma Banda, Chairman MPS who disclosed this to journalists said that with a lifespan of up to two decades, the arrival of the STS cranes will greatly improve services to shipping lines most notably the turnaround time of vessels and cost-efficiency of the lines, cheaper freight in addition to creating more jobs.
“Shipping is our specialty; we’ve been around the whole world so we know what Ghana needs. We know the needs of the port. We believe in what we are doing, we have the vision, credibility and we keep going from strength to strength and represent the strength of Ghana” he said.
MPS, one of the top container terminal operators in Africa, is now a public-private partnership between Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority and Meridian Port Holdings - which in turn is a joint venture with Bolloré Africa Logistics and APM Terminals as principal investors and the leading container terminal operators in the world.
The company was set up in 2000 and incorporated in 2007. It has since made progress with the blessing of the government and financial and technical support from its shareholders.
Alhaji Banda said following MPS’ initial investment into the land at the port, the company set out to acquire equipment to achieve its mandate
The decision was, therefore, taken to acquire, among other things, two Mobile harbour cranes (MHCs) and an additional seven reach stackers.
“As growth continued, it was necessary to accommodate not only this growth but increasing productivity and efficiency at the port, thus MPS invested US$ 20m in two STS cranes. Taking over a year to reach the port, several other investments were made in the meantime,” he said.
“The overall investment injected into this company- and country- since 2007 amounts to over US$145m. Highlights of the year since 2012, include an additional mobile harbour crane, a four megawatt back-up power plant and nine rubber-tyred gantry (RTG) cranes. Our biggest investment yet would be our new STS cranes” he stated.
Alhaji Banda explained that staff would receive immediate and ongoing specialised and comprehensive technical training, thereby continuing to expand the Ghanaian talent pool.
“The cranes will not only boost the technical department with advanced computers and sensors, but will ensure that MPS’ technicians become both technically and practically proficient with the new cranes.”
On local engineering capabilities, he commented “Our local context is there. Ghanaians are there. Anytime you have a question, a Ghanaian will explain. We send our engineers to the best terminals across the world for them to learn and understand better.”
“It is clear that in the last five years, MPS has experienced consummate progress. Since 2008, the movement of containers has increased dramatically from 410,000 to 650,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) per annum, - an over 58 per cent increase. The cranes will also aid in increasing throughput capacity to one million TEU per annum- a long time goal of the company- leading to a domino effect on the growth of the country’s economy at large,” he said.
He said in the coming five years, MPS would invest more to decongest the port and cement its advantageous position within both the industry and the country’s economy.