On November 15, Konecranes and the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) celebrated the 1000th RTG crane manufactured by Konecranes.
The Port of Savannah took delivery of it in August at the Garden City container terminal.
In honor of the occasion, the 1000th Konecranes RTG was specially painted with a “stars and stripes” design, mirroring the U.S. flag.
The Georgia Ports Authority took delivery of the first Konecranes RTG in 1995. That machine was revolutionary for its time. It was the world’s first container crane without hydraulics. It had Konecranes patented Active Load Control (ALC) system for the world’s highest container handling productivity. It also had eco-efficient AC drives supplied by Konecranes.
The 1000th Konecranes RTG now being celebrated is a descendant of that first RTG, with many evolutionary improvements. Most importantly it is electrically-driven, producing 95% less diesel emissions.
The Georgia Ports Authority has been growing steadily for decades, thanks to Savannah’s ideal demographic and geographic location. The south-east US has been the fastest-growing demographic region in the US for decades, with a manufacturing base that is close to the eastern seaboard. The Port of Savannah is also one of the few ports in America that have plenty of room to grow: it can offer customers well-placed locations for their distribution centers. It also has first-class rail services. Railroads operating in the eastern half of the USA are located on the GPA port grounds. Goods can be transported very efficiently and cost-effectively.
Konecranes is a world-leading group of Lifting Businesses, serving a broad range of customers, including manufacturing and process industries, shipyards, ports and terminals. Konecranes provides productivity-enhancing lifting solutions as well as services for lifting equipment and machine tools of all makes. In 2015, group sales totaled 2,126 million euro. The group has 11,100 employees at 600 locations in 48 countries. Konecranes is listed on Nasdaq Helsinki. (Portnews/Business World Magazine)
