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The Port of Tauranga is taking delivery of a multi-million dollar addition this week with the arrival of its seventh Liebherr container crane.

The crane, worth about $12million, disassembled for delivery from Killarney in Ireland, was discharged from the project cargo ship Norderney this week.

A selection of photos of the Port of Tauranga's new crane. Photos: POT.

Tauranga stevedores ISL Ltd did the unloading, says Port of Tauranga CEO Mark Cairns today.

'I did notice flying out this morning that most of the large pieces are off the vessel that is sitting at the new berth,” says Mark.

The crane will be put together and commissioned in the next eight weeks with the intention that it be in business by the end of March.

Rich Rigging and Welding Ltd did a really good job assembling the last crane and they are also assembling this one, says Mark.

It will be positioned in the midst of the line-up, probably beside crane six.

The post panamax crane has the same dimensions as the sixth Liebherr crane commissioned last year - tandem capability, an outreach of 48metres enabling it to discharge containers from ships 18 containers wide – ships that are bigger than the port is currently able to accommodate.

Height to the top of the boom when up is 95.93m. Height to the top of the Apex is 71m. It has a lifting height of 36.90m off the wharf, and it can lift 60 tons under the spreader.

The port will take posesssion when Rich Rigging and Welding hand it over in about 10 weeks.

The associated dredging programme to widen and deepen port channels from 12.9m to 16m at low water is expected to be staged with the first stage beginning towards the end of the year.

The pace of the programme will depend on the pace set by the port's customers, when they expect to bring bigger ships onto the New Zealand coast. The end goal is for the Port of Tauranga to accommodate ships of 347m LOA and 14.5m draught at all tides.