A ‘snow start’ to the year could have brought delays, damage and even downtime at APM Terminals Gothenburg as a blizzard kicked in – just as a major customer called at the port. But next-level proactive planning, determined customer focus and can-do team spirit saw the vessel unloaded on time and safely, and even scored a moves-per-hour record.

Extreme weather conditions can affect container ships and logistics deadlines not only while vessels are in transit, but when they call port, with heightened safety and container damage risk.

Bracing conditions

As Gothenburg braced itself for winds of up to 30 meters per second (m/s) in the second week of this year, the APM Terminals team was buckling down in preparation, thanks to forward thinking by the dispatching unit personnel.

“Our fantastic dispatchers for the vessels and empty depot planned efficiently before the storm hit so that we could maintain high crane productivity and use our resources in an incredibly dynamic way,” says Supervisor, Rickard Lindén.

“The crane teams on all shifts really stepped up. They understood the need for safe and efficient production to meet the customer’s needs. We safely managed to load all units, containers, and locks—and even completed the lashing on time. The customer, and especially the ship’s captain, was very pleased. They were able to wait out the storm and safely depart from the quay to head to their next destination,” he said.

Record move

The outstanding efforts meant the team achieved a GMPH (Gross Moves Per Hour) of 33.29 for the mainliner call, narrowly surpassing the previous record of 33.22.

“This is an incredible effort by the team. Not only did we break the record, but we did so under extremely challenging weather conditions,” added Execution Manager, Nicklas Olausson.