Port workers at the UK’s Port of Felixstowe set a new record for the speed of loading and unloading a ship, with the port claiming that a container was handled almost every minute.

Quayside gantry crane helps set new efficiency record for UK port

The port set a new record for the number of container moves in a 12-hour shift. A total of 3431 exchanges were completed on the Maersk Sarnia vessel and in a 12-hour shift, 602 moves were completed by an individual quayside gantry crane, the equivalent of more than 50 moves per hour, at an overall speed of 182 moves per hour across the whole vessel.

“We have been working hard with all our stakeholders, including our customers, to raise the service level at Felixstowe and I am very pleased to see this continuous improvement,” said Clemence Cheng, CEO of Hutchison Ports UK, which owns the Port of Felixstowe.

“I would like to thank the excellent workforces responsible for making this phenomenal achievement possible. It is a reflection of the close collaboration between the port and its customers and a great deal of team work from everyone to make this happen.”

The port announced the achievement is a result of a programme of continuous improvements. In the past 12 months the Port of Felixstowe has made an overall improvement of 24 per cent in real operational moves per hour on deep-sea vessels

Quayside gantry crane helps set new efficiency record for UK port