Medcenter Container Terminal SpA (MCT), which operates a major transshipment hub for the Mediterranean region, has placed an order for 30 Kalmar seventh generation CSC straddle carriers, to accommodate growth in container volumes at its Gioia Tauro facility in Italy.

Due for delivery between late 2007 and early 2008, the order includes 20 four-high CSC440 units and 10 three-high CSC340 units. The new CSC440 unit will provide a 50 per cent stacking capacity increase over MCT's existing three-high straddle carriers.

MCT, part of the Contship Italia Group, handles three million TEU a year along its 3,300-metre quay. Some 95 per cent of this is transshipment cargo for the central Mediterranean region, meaning that most of its box movements tend to be between the feeder and mothership berths. With boxes from one vessel likely to be transshipped onto several smaller vessels and vice versa, the flexibility of a straddle carrier to operate within a randomly distributed box environment is ideal, said a statement from Kalmar Industries.

Straddle carriers allow the STS cranes to discharge and pick up containers directly onto and from the quay, which is more time effective than placing them on a chassis.

Kalmar Straddle Carriers vice president Ilkka Annala said the reliability, independence and productivity of the straddle carrier system is suited to transshipment hubs.