Four of the largest and most modern Ship To Shore (STS) quay cranes have arrived at DP World's new Jebel Ali Container Terminal 3 (T3), due to open next year.

This is the first batch of 19 quay cranes due to be delivered in the next few months and installed on the 1,860 metre long and 17 metre deep quayside at the 4 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) capacity terminal. They join the first four of 50 Rail Mounted Gantry (RMG) cranes that arrived there last month.

Each quay crane is over 138 metres tall at full boom extension and if all 19 were put end to end they would be three times the height of the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building and an iconic Dubai landmark.

Mohammed Al Muallem, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, DP World, UAE Region, said: As customers order larger vessels and seek world class hub ports to handle their fleets, development of port infrastructure to handle these giant vessels is a major requirement. These cranes and our new container terminal will strengthen Jebel Ali's position as the most efficient and modern gateway for cargo in the UAE, GCC and the wider Middle East region.

Mohammed Ali Ahmed, Chief Operations Officer, DP World, UAE Region, said: These new cranes are industry leading and will form the backbone of our operations at our new world-class deep-sea container terminal. In the first half of this year, an additional 1 million TEU capacity was added to Container Terminal 2 (T2) at Jebel Ali Port increasing current capacity to 15 million TEU.

Nabil Qayed, Director, Technical Department, DP World, UAE Region, said: The new STS cranes each weigh 1,850,000kg - the equivalent of three fully loaded Airbus A380-800 superjumbo aircrafts at take-off. They can lift four twenty foot containers at one time, handling up to 100,000 kg a lift. And with their 69.5 metre lifting height and extended reach, they can easily handle the 25 containers-wide new generation ultra large container ships (ULCS).

The cranes are equipped with the latest technology and sailed from Shanghai's Zhenhua Port Machinery Company (ZPMC) yards in China three weeks ago, arriving ahead of time.

There will be 98 quay cranes in total at Jebel Ali once all cranes on order are in place. T3 will increase the total capacity of the port to 19 million TEU giving it the ability to handle as many as 10 of the ULCS at the same time.