Four years after Montecon S.A., a multi-purpose terminal in Montevideo, Uruguay, charged Liebherr Maritime Cranes with designing and creating two new mobile harbour cranes, able to reach up to 22 rows of containers, the project has been completed, announces Liebherr. In early May owners of the Liebherr Group visited Montevideo for the official inauguration of the two world’s largest mobile harbour cranes of LHM 800 type. Liebherr representatives were welcomed by the members of Montecon’s owner families – the family Schandy and the family von Appen.
The Port of Montevideo is one of the major ports in South America and the only deep-water port in Uruguay. It plays an essential role in the economy of the country. Montecon S.A. proactively responds to the requirements of its customers and in particular to the increasing sizes of container vessels that call the port. With this strategic view, the operator has invested in the most advanced mobile solution for handling large containerships.
Liebherr Maritime Cranes developed the LHM 800 at Montecon’s request, as there were no mobile harbour cranes big enough to meet the needs of the largest containerships, thus expanding its MHCs range. The Liebherr LHM 800 has the fulcrum point above 36m and an outreach of 64m for efficiently servicing ships as wide as 22 container rows. The machine continues the LHM-range’s tradition of high working speeds by hoisting and lowering containers with 120 metres per minute, which allows the productivity of up to 45 boxes per hour.
Both cranes were manufactured at the Liebherr plant in Rostock, Germany, and took a nearly 13,000km long journey to Montevideo on board Jumbo Shipping’s FAIRLANE last summer.
Montecon has been using Liebherr MHCs for 16 years, starting from the first two LHM 400 cranes delivered in 2001. The two new LHM 800 will make the total number of MHCs employed by the Uruguayan company to 9. Montecon uses MHCs to handle containers due to ongoing dispute with its competitor in the port of Montevideo – Terminal Cuenca del Plata, which has a monopoly rights on deploying STS cranes.
Leopold Berthold, Managing Director Sales of Liebherr-MCCtec Rostock GmbH, comments: “The decisive link between the biggest mobile harbour crane in the world and a successfully running port business is the close and trustful cooperation of two leading family businesses. The LHM 800 represents a before and after, a new area for both family-owned companies, Montecon and Liebherr.”
Montecon is the first Liebherr’s customer for LHM 800 designed for container operations. In 2015, LHM 800 was also delivered to the Port of Bronka, Russia, but for handling oversized and heavy lift cargo.