4 Mar 2021
World’s biggest ship propeller loaded onto vessel
Topics: Floating Crane, Hamburger Hafen, Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG, Heavy Lift, Heavy Transport, HHLA, Hyandai Supreme, Mecklenburger Metallguss GmbH, Port of Hamburg, ship propeller
Date 17 September 2018
On 16 September Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) loaded world’s biggest propeller onto a vessel. The HHLA IV floating crane brought the 110-tonne object to the port of Waltersbof, where it was hoisted onto the Hyundai Supreme container ship.
It was the most powerful ship propeller to have ever been lifted by the hook of a HHLA floating crane. Although HHLA regularly loads specialised products of Mecklenburger Metallguss GmbH (MMG) onto ships in Hamburg, the propeller, with a weight of 110 tonnes and a diameter of 10.50 metres, surpassed anything that had even been seen at the port before.
MMG is a leading manufactures of ships propellers. Around 100 MMG propellers are loaded onto ships at the Port of Hamburg alone every year before making their way to shipyards all over the world.
After being transported by road from the production facility in Waren an der Müritz in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania to Hamburg, the enormous new propeller was temporarily stored at Hachmannkai quay close to the HHLA Container Terminal Tollerort until it was ready for loading.
On the morning of September 16th, the HHLA IV floating crane, which can lift up to 200 tonnes, moved the world’s biggest propeller onto its transport platform and brought it to the berth of the Hyundai Supreme at the port of Waltershof. The jib of the floating crane raised the propeller from the transport platform and carefully lifted it over the towering side of the 300-metre-long container vessel. It was a delicate operation that involved lowering the heavy load little by little into the hold of the ship.
The Hyandai Supreme departed from the Port of Hamburg again on 16 September in the early evening and headed for the Far East. The 110-tonne propeller is destined for the port of Busan. From there, it will be transported on to the Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering shipyard, where the first of eleven new container ships are currently being built for the shipping company MSC. With a capacity of 23,000 TEU, the newbuilds will be the biggest container ships in the world.
Source, photographs HHLA
