Crane down in Antwerp

An APL vessel has broken its moorings and hit a crane at DP World’s Antwerp Gateway terminal.

An incident at the Port of Antwerp on 9 December has resulted in a Kalmar STS crane being knocked over by the APL Mexico City.

The APL Mexico City is a 9,200 TEU vessel with a length of 328 m and beam of 46m. The port has not released a statement, but it appears the vessel was berthed at the MSC terminal on the other side of Antwerp’s Deurganckdock when it broke its moorings, drifted across the Deurganckdock and struck the crane at DP World’s Antwerp Gateway terminal.

The crane was not operational at the time and it there were no injuries. The Port of Antwerp reported that ship was brought safely back to the quay soon after and operations were resumed.

The crane itself is a complete loss. It was QC No.2, one of six Kalmar STS cranes that were delivered to Antwerp Gateway in 2005. It does not appear to be one of the three from this series that were raised recently by Kalmar.

The incident occurred in a week where Antwerp has had problems with high winds and difficult weather conditions. Earlier in the week one of the port’s water buses was blown into a structure, injuring 12 people.

Source: WorldCargo News