BEST Set a New Productivity Record

The port discharged 618 containers and loaded 1035 in less than eight hours when working MSC LONDON, at a rate of 212.58 moves per hour. Individual cranes operated at rates of up to 45 moves per hour, one of the best in Europe, stated BEST, Hutchison Port's Spanish affiliate.

 

The Port of Barcelona recorded in the year 2014 a total traffic of 46.3 million tonnes, 9%, with the highest volume of traffic in its history, surpassing the peak levels achieved in 2007, before the economic crisis. 

 

The most dramatic increase has occurred in the section on container exports, which last year began to grow by 7%, compared to 2013 and has already accumulated an increase of 43 percent from 2008.

 

Guillermo Belcastro, General Manager of BEST, said, “BEST is the only semi-automated terminal in Spain and the only one in the Mediterranean to be equipped with 11 ship-to-shore gantry cranes large enough to handle the latest generation of mega-vessel. We achieved this record using seven cranes at the peak supported by our fleet of 36 automatic stacking cranes.”

 

“Backed up with state-of-the-art operating systems, including HPH’s proprietary terminal operating system, nGen, BEST offers shipping lines and shippers the most efficient way of accessing markets in Spain and southern France.”

 

The MSC London is one of the largest ships operated by MSC, built in 2014; the vessel is 399 metres in length with a breadth of 54 metres and a draft of 16 metres. With a gross tonnage of 176,490 tonnes the call was the last at the port from the MSC Dragon Express service. 

 

The MSC London was followed on 11 February 2015 by a call from the 10,300 TEU Susan Maersk, the first call at BEST by the new 2M alliance between MSC and Maersk.