Since 2001 long-time Paterson Simons customer, Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), has had unwavering faith in the JCB Teletruk. This month, on the occasion of GPHA purchasing their 100th Teletruk, JCB’s export development manager Simon Cubitt made a special presentation to the port Director General Richard A.Y.Anamoo; a framed 1996 Teletruk concept image Signed by Lord Bamford, founder of JCB.
Following delivery of the latest JCB Teletruks the port has reached and exceeded 100 deliveries! What is more remarkable is that they now have 86 live operational Teletruks in the lead port of Tema and a smaller number in Takoradi.
GPHA owns and operates two ports, one in Tema and the other in Takoradi. Takoradi Port is going through an extensive expansion and modernisation programme to support the needs of the oil, gas, mining and general trading sectors. The two ports together handle on average 17 million metric tons of cargo, and container traffic is projected to grow from the current 1 million to 2 million TEUs in the next 10 years.
The Teletruk provides a solution not easily offered by other machines, particularly when it comes to de-vanning containers. Shipping containers are used to transport a wide variety of non-palletised goods such as household contents, cars and small trucks – if it fits into a container the Teletruk can retrieve it efficiently and safely.
The Teletruk’s small footprint allows it to enter containers with full forwards vision (unlike a masted truck) when combined with its high forwards capacity and handling flexibility offered by its telescopic reach, the machine offloads more containers, more quickly, and in a safer manner than its competitors.
The future is looking bright for Teletruk in Ghana as GPHA anticipates increased container de-vanning from the current 100 containers per day to 400 containers. This has necessitated the construction of a new Container Devanning Terminal at Kpong on the outskirts of Tema Port. Additional Teletruk business is already in the 2017 plan which will further cement GPHA as one of our most important individual customers anywhere in the world.