New cranes will not be wasted despite lo-lo service reduction
GUERNSEY HARBOURS has said two cranes purchased three years ago will not go to waste following the last sailing of the Huelin Dispatch to the island.
Channel Island Lines chartered the lift-on, lift-off (lo-lo) vessel, but will now ship its goods by trailer on Condor vessels.
Two new Gottwald cranes arrived in Guernsey in 2015 to service berths four and five, which were used by the Dispatch and Channel Seaways’ ship Valiant, which continues to run between the island, Poole and Jersey.
The project to install them and refurbish the berth cost £13.7m.
General manager for ports Colin Le Ray said having two cranes remained vital.
‘The States took the decision to buy the two Gottwald cranes and refurbish berths four, five and six in January 2012.
‘As critical infrastructure for the economic well-being of Guernsey, having the resilience of the two cranes in St Peter Port is vital for the island.
‘Mechanical breakdown, routine servicing, training, and a late arrival of a vessel can all result in one, the other, or both cranes being used in any given time, whereas having just one crane leaves the island vulnerable to equipment outages.
‘Guernsey Harbours use both cranes on a regular basis to spread hours of use and with the potential for more changes to the way freight is handled in future, usage patterns may change.
‘With 98.7% of all imports coming into Guernsey by sea, we are confident crane use will be maintained and the investment was sound and appropriate. Also having the current cranes in service has resulted in quicker turnaround times for lo-lo ships,’ he said.
Channel Island Lines chief executive Andy Cook has said that the change will allow the company to provide a faster and more frequent operation.
‘For us to remain competitive we have to meet our customers’ expectations.
‘In the media, for example, there is talk about Amazon next-day delivery and we cannot tell our customers we will get something to them in a week’s time.
‘A daily service is what we need to do. We have spent a lot of time talking to Condor about their spare capacity and how they can manage our service and we are comfortable there is sufficient capacity.’
