The Netherlands-based terminal operator APM Terminals has ordered new cranes to equip its new container transshipment terminal at the Tangier Med 2 port complex, situated in Morocco, on Africa’s northwest coast.

Under the contract, the terminal operator ordered a total of 12 remote-controlled Ship-to-Shore (STS) cranes and 32 Automated Rail-Mounted Gantry Cranes (ARMGs) for the five-million TEU APM Terminals MedPort Tangier facility.

The STS cranes, ordered from Shanghai-based ZPMC, are scheduled for delivery at the end of 2017 and feature full automation, including a remote crane operator safely located in an office building near the quay, a second trolley, and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology.

The 32 ARMGs, also expected for delivery in late 2017, will be provided by Austrian-based Künz and deployed in 16 container yard blocks, each serviced by two ARMGs.

The container terminal will be the second operated by APM Terminals at the Tanger-Med port complex designed to serve the newest Ultra-Large Container Ships (ULCS) with capacities of up to 20,000 TEUs.

APM Terminals MedPort Tangier will have up to 2,000 meters of quay length and increase the Tanger-Med complex’s overall capacity to over nine million TEUs.

In March 2016, APM Terminals was named as the operator of the new container terminal. The company already operates the APM Terminals Tangier facility at Tanger Med 1 port, which started operations in July of 2007 and handled 1.7 million TEUs in 2015.

Total investment in the new terminal is expected to be EUR 758 million, with APMT’s sister liner company Maersk Line to be an important customer of the new terminal.

Opening in 2019, the deep-water terminal will employ both conventional and fully-automated operations and a truck gate system.