Porto Itapoá Purchases New Equipment

Porto Itapoá has purchased two new Reach Stacker forklifts to be used in the yard of the Terminal. The aim is to improve the service between the ship and the yard, and complement operations that use the RTG, a mobile crane that is used within ports to move and stack containers.

This will reduce the overall length of operations and provide support for specific transfers, such as special cargo of the Break Bulk type. The Operations Manager at Porto Itapoá, Thiago Santos, explained that the new purchase would reduce the TTT (Truck Turnaround Time), the length of time the trucks are within the port. “These days, we have about 1600 per day passing through the terminal”, he explained. According to Santos, improving the TTT, the truck transit time, is something Porto Itapoá is constantly working on.
Our Kalmar-brand equipment can lift 45 tons on the spreaders (the device attached to the machine to lift the containers) and there are several electronic safeguards for the operator. The port already has three similar machines.

With its service capacity expected to grow, Porto Itapoá has been investing in its infrastructure. As well as the Reach Stacker forklifts, they are purchasing another five RTGs, rubber-tired gantry cranes, to move containers in the yard. The Terminal already has 17 of these of the ZPMC make, but the new ones will be operated remotely. Porto Itapoá will be the first port in the country with this system. The machines are due to be delivered in January 2023.

Another important purchase is nine new Terminal Tractors (Tts), which are due to arrive in July, as well as nine buggies, trailers for the TTS, which have already been received. The vehicles will form a 40-strong fleet of Rucker make vehicles, which are able to carry 65 metric tons each, equal to two 20-foot containers.
This new infrastructure is helping Porto Itapoá get ready for the final phase of its expansion. By the end of 2023, the Terminal will have an additional 200 thousand m2 of yard, for a total of 455 thousand m2; a pier that is 800m long currently will be 1210m; and around double the capacity, up to 2 million TEUs per year.