Yara Birkeland sails fully loaded for the first time

? This week Yara’s digital crane operators rounded up 1,000 fertiliser containers loaded with Kalmar’s self-operated gantry crane. And autonomous containership Yara Birkeland operated by Massterly sails fully loaded for the first time.

Yara’s digital crane operators complete a milestone in operating Kalmar’s gantry crane. The loading operations are now monitored and controlled by crane operators from a control room on the Birkeland quay, but will eventually become fully automated.

? “This week we loaded a full vessel, 104 containers, and at the same time we reached 1,000 containers loaded on board since the end of April,” says the crane team proudly.

Yara Birkeland now runs once a week between Herøya and the North Sea Terminal in Brevik, and Kalmar’s gantry crane is driven semi-autonomously, but has been specially developed to become fully autonomous. The aim is 5 sailing per week.

? “Getting the boat up and running and getting the crane to run smoothly is what we are working on for the next couple of years,” says Brigitte Brueland, Operation/Project Coordinator. She is very happy with the milestone.

? “It’s not that there is no need for people, someone has to monitor. We are now installing bollards to automate moorings (auto mooring). We are peeling off work operations and will concentrate on automating loading operations for two years. The aim is to put in place the digital solutions needed to automate operations,” – team of crane operators says.

?? Source: Herøya Industripark