All I want for Christmas is - a new $17m crane

What a sight!

This morning, just after 8am, a new container crane arrived in Fremantle. The $17 million ZPMC crane was delivered in an upright position on the deck of the carrier ship Jin Xu Xiang 88 with the boom horizontal.

The carrier ship is a heavy load carrier/lift ship that was built in 2023 and currently sails under the flag of Panama. This 169 metres long ship specialises in carrying bridge cranes and other very heavy equipment. In Chinese, Jin Xu Xiang means Just Ask.

The crane has come all the way from Dalian, a port city in Liaodong Province, which is one of China’s. Or there most provinces – so much so it was once occupied by the Soviet Union. As you’ll see from this image, Vladivostok isn’t that far away.

The ship with five cranes onboard made her way between the North and South Moles and then through Fremantle’s inner harbour to DP World on the north side of the harbour where the red and white cranes are located.

DP World is Australia’s leading container terminal and end-to-end supply chain logistics provider. The new crane has an outreach of 48 metres. Once alongside at the berth, seawater in the ship’s ballast tanks will be adjusted to level the vessel to the wharf height, allowing the 1,239-tonne crane to be off-loaded with winches on the ship.

This is a tricky and complex procedure and will take two to three days.

So, if you missed the vessel and cranes arrival this morning – pop down to Victoria Quay to see her.

The arrival of this crane will increase the number of cranes at the Port of Fremantle to eight.

This is an exciting time for trade growth in Western Australia. Containerised trade is on of Fremantle Ports’ critical activities, and the new crane will be an important player in facilitating that trade.

We didn’t have quite the same number of spectators on Victoria Quay this morning to witness the crane’s arrival when compared with the 10,000 spectators at Constitution Dock, Hobart, who gathered to witness the ‘neck and neck’ finish of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, yesterday, and see LawConnect finish seconds ahead of Comanche. But it was still a lot of fun for those of us who were there!

* STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS by Jean Hudson @jeansodyssey. Jean is our Shipping Correspondent and also a regular feature writer and photographer here on the Shipping News. You may like to follow up her informative Places I Love stories, as well as other feature stories and Freo Today photographs, right here.

WHILE YOU’RE HERE –