Two new cranes arrive on Halifax waterfront

There are two new giants along the Halifax waterfront. The 57-metre, 1,600 tonne Super Post Panamax cranes will position in Halifax as a leader in the North American cargo business.

“We are the only terminal that is able to handle ships of 16,000 TEU and we are already seeing vessels slowly start to increase in size and as these trends continue, we expect to see bigger ships of this nature coming to Halifax,” says Jonathan Chia, chief commercial officer of PSA Halifax.

One crane has been offloaded and it’ll be another two days before the second one is on shore. It will take six weeks of testing before they are operational. The target date is January 2024.

Combined with the Fairview terminal, capacity will increase from 1.1 million TEUs, or 20-foot equivalent units, to a capacity of 1.4 million by the end of next year.

Shipping containers in Halifax are pictured. (Source: CTV News Atlantic/Jonathan MacInnis)

“With these two new cranes, we actually have three cranes that will be well-equipped to handle the kind of 16,000 TEU vessels. So we are expecting better productivity and faster vessel turnaround time,” Chia says.

That means an increase in the labour force will be needed to move the extra cargo. Pablo Boulin is the operations head for PSA.

“We have made new agreements with the unions to increase the manpower, the membership. So we are hiring 52 new members. We started hiring and training in October so that will take us to a total of 350-ish members.”

A crane in Halifax is pictured. (Source: CTV News Atlantic/Jonathan MacInnis)

Rail expansion is coming, too.

“I think the Port Authority is aiming to start the work by next summer or next spring. We are going to go from 8,000 feet of rail capacity to 14,000,” Boulin says.

“In terms of CN, they have one train a day and every other day there’s two trains. They can easily ramp up to three trains a day and that would be more than enough to serve the 1.4 million TEU capacity we are aiming for,” adds Chia.

Further upgrades are coming. PSA plans to put another $200 million into the modernization of Halifax’s cargo terminals.

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