Evergreen Inaugurates Terminal 7 at Kaohsiung Port Taiwan's First Automated Container Terminal

Evergreen Marine Corp. (EMC) held an official opening ceremony for the newly built Terminal 7 at Kaohsiung Port today. With the vision of new opportunities for the port and the provision of substantial enhancements to trade, the smart terminal is expected to drive ongoing growth of shipping related industries within southern Taiwan. The event was presided over by EMC’s Chairman, Y.I. Chang, and President, Eric Hsieh. A host of local government officials and distinguished guests were also in attendance.

Evergreen Marine worked closely with Taiwan International Ports Corporation (TIPC) to develop Terminal 7. The new facility is considered to be the most important project that Taiwan’s shipping industry has undertaken in recent years. TIPC was responsible for the construction of the port infrastructure while Evergreen invested in operating system and handling equipment such as ship-to-shore (STS) gantry cranes, automated rail-mounted gantry cranes (ARMGC), reach stackers and side loaders.

In line with the trend of the global container shipping industry and the operation demands of mega container ships, Terminal 7 is equipped with 5 berths with a draft of 18 meters, a quay length of 2,415 meters, and 24 STS gantry cranes, including 19 remote-controlled ones. Among them, 16 gantry cranes are 55.5 meters high and can handle ultra-large container ships with 25 rows of containers on deck, effectively improving the quayside operation efficiency.

The five berths of Terminal 7 will be inaugurated in two phases. Currently, Berth S5, S4 and S3B have become operational while Berth S1, S2 and S3A are scheduled to commence operations during July 2024. When fully operated next year, Terminal 7 will allow four 24,000 teu container ships and two feeder vessels to berth at the same time. With a yard area of 149 hectares, the facility is able to store 89,238 teu of laden containers and 43,656 teu of empty containers.

As the first and largest fully-automated container terminal equipped with remote-controlled gantry cranes in Taiwan, Terminal 7 can significantly improve the efficiency of container handling operations. Over the long term, the terminal is expected to achieve an annual handling volume of 6.5 million teu.

In his remarks at the opening ceremony, EMC Chairman Y.I. Chang said, “In line with the trend of the international shipping industry and the operational demand of mega container ships, Evergreen consolidated the cargo handling services in Terminal 4 and Terminal 5 of Kaohsiung Port and moved the operations to the advanced Terminal 7, removing the trucking demand to haul containers between the two separate terminals and cutting carbon emissions from such transportation. We made a significant investment in automatic and energy-saving equipment and also launched "Containerlink", an online platform which improves service quality by integrating truck appointments for cargo delivery/pickup, container yard operation and digital payment systems.” 

< Korea Shipping Gazette >