New Manitowoc 21000 in Australia

A new 907 tonne capacity Manitowoc crawler crane that will be used to build ships in Australia has arrived in the country and been assembled.

The Model 21000 lattice boom crawler crane will be used in the construction of Hobart Class air warfare destroyers for the Royal Australian Navy. It was procured by ASC, the AWD project shipbuilder, on behalf of the AWD Alliance and will be used to erect large hull blocks during the consolidation phase of the AU$ 8 billion (US$ 7.4 billion) AWD project which will deliver three advanced warships. For more information see IC December 2009, News page 7, Manitowoc 21000 to Australia.

The crane, which runs on eight crawler tracks, arrived at the Common User Facility wharf at Techport from Baltimore, Maryland, USA where it was loaded on board ship for the six-week journey to Australia. A total of 1,500 metric tonnes of crane parts were unloaded continuously over 24 hours. Assembly of the crane was done by a team of Manitowoc Crane Care technicians over three weeks.