NCC continues to invest in handling equipment

National Container Company (NCC) and Fabrisem SL (Spain) signed a contract for production and delivery of 17 trailers for NCC's container terminals. Twelve trailers will be delivered to First Container Terminal (FCT); the other five will be delivered to the off-dock container terminal in Shushary (St.Petersburg).

The delivery of the new Fabrisem trailers along with Konecranes RTG cranes and Kalmar terminal trucks will enable FCT to change the technology of container handling. By using this equipment instead of straddle carriers and reachstackers containers can be stacked up to five tiers high, which saves much space at the terminal and increases its capacity. The operation of Shushary off-dock terminal will be right from the start arranged by means of RTG cranes and truck/trailers systems.

All the equipment will have one-of-a-kind performance specifications. The trailers ordered for FCT allow to set twist-locks on the container, as well as to carry out its local inspection when it is on the trailer. The trailers ordered for Shushary terminal allow to load/reload a container without taking it off the trailer. The trailers are designed to carry one 40' container or two 20' containers.

According to the contract the terminals will receive the ordered equipment in October - November 2008. Fabrisem trailers have been successfully used at many European terminals, but until now they have not been delivered to Russia and the CIS countries.

"With the delivery of 17 trailers for NCC?s container terminals, Fabrisem is another step closer to become the leading harbourtrailers manufacturer", says Carlos Ruiz, co-owner, Fabrisem SL. "Thanks to NCC for their trust".

The trailers are ordered according to FCT's investment program which envisages construction of a new berth, purchase of modern terminal equipment and also putting into operation the off-dock terminal in Shushary (20 km from FCT) with the annual capacity of 200,000 TEU. The FCT's throughput is going to increase up to 1.6M TEU by 2012. The total investment in the development of the terminal will amounted to $180M from 2006 to 2012.