The world’s largest mobile harbour crane operating at full tilt at the port of Esbjerg

Look to the sky on your next visit to the port of Esbjerg and you may see the world’s largest mobile crane in action. At an impressive height of 80 metres, the crane is sure to attract attention. Worldwide, there are only 12 cranes of its kind, all manufactured by the German company Liebherr.

“The crane is in operation every day and it is working at full speed,” says John Fritsen, team leader and in charge of crane operations at Port Esbjerg.

The new crane arrived at Esbjerg on 21 August and is now a key part of port operations. CEO Dennis Jul Pedersen is very pleased with the new acquisition:

“I’m very excited about this new crane, because it has increased our capacity considerably. We have to be able to handle more and more heavy cargo in the future and needed to upgrade our capacity. I’m also pleased to note that few other ports in the world have a crane like this one, because it shows that the port of Esbjerg is an international heavyweight,” explains Jul Pedersen.

The crane weighs 800 tonnes and has a lifting capacity of 308 tonnes, equal to the weight of 67 elephants. Port Esbjerg’s fleet of Liebherr cranes was already the largest in Scandinavia and now it has five.

Meeting the growing requirements of the offshore industry

In just four years, Port Esbjerg has seen the number of crane operations rise by 66 per cent, so the new Liebherr LHM800 has quickly become an indispensable part of day-to-day operations at the port.

“The crane gives us much greater flexibility in terms of the type of freight we are able to handle. Not only can we lift individual items of more than 300 tonnes, the new crane also lets us perform tandem lifting with two cranes working together to lift as much as 448 tonnes,” says Jul Pedersen.

Part of the reason for the current trends in the offshore industry is that components for offshore wind turbines in the North Sea are becoming ever larger and heavier. At the same time, companies in other industries at the port increasingly need to be able to handle heavy machine parts and production equipment. 

Port Esbjerg recorded cargo turnover of 4.5 million tonnes per year and almost 6,000 port calls in 2018. The port has six regular cargo routes to 25 destinations.