Cargo Business Techwire

Friday, August 21, 2015

Matson receives Alaska’s largest crane at Kodiak terminal

Matson took delivery of a new $10 million 65-ton gantry crane to replace one half its size at the company’s Kodiak terminal.

More than 340 feet tall with a boom spanning 164 feet, Matson’s new crane is the largest in Alaska, capable of lifting loads up to 60 feet long and weighing up to 145,000 pounds.

Its high tech industrial equipment will be powered entirely by renewable energy. An electrically powered crane that uses fly wheel technology to capture, store and then return power as needed, the crane will run on electricity provided by the Kodiak Electric Association, which uses wind and water turbines to generate 99.9 percent of its power.

Worth more than $10 million, the new crane is one of a number of investments Matson is making to

improve the services and capabilities of its Alaska operations. It has also purchased new ground equipment and ordered a fleet of new dry and insulated containers for use in Alaska. Matson has also scheduled work to install new exhaust scrubber systems on the three former Horizon D7 Class vessels it now operates in Alaska, with each vessel going into dry dock for three months, one after another, starting in September.

Matson closed its acquisition of Horizon Lines, Inc., which included Horizon’s Alaska operations and is taking over all non-Hawaii business, for $469 million on May 29, 2015. Matson is continuing Horizon’s long operating history in Alaska with a three vessel deployment of diesel powered containerships that provide two weekly sailings from Tacoma to Anchorage and Kodiak, and a weekly sailing to
Dutch Harbor.