The Maersk Ganges, operating on the ALCT2 coastal service, has made the first commercial call at the new APM Terminals Suape in Pernambuco, Brazil, bringing online an initial annual capacity of 400,000 TEU and raising container handling capacity at the Suape Port Complex by 55%.

The terminal, located in the Suape Industrial Port Complex, will receive ALCT2 calls twice a week. The service links Suape with Pecém, Salvador, Santos, Itapoá, Rio Grande and Imbituba, giving Brazil's Northeast region a direct coastal connection into the country's main southern gateways.

Daniel Rose, managing director of APM Terminals Suape and Pecém, framed the opening as a strategic play rather than a capacity patch. "The start of operations at APM Terminals Suape increases the container handling capacity of the port complex by more than half and creates tangible opportunities for regional growth," he said. Rose called the terminal a strategic investment in a market with strong expansion potential that will "support new trade flows" and strengthen Suape's position as a key logistics gateway.

How fast was the build?

The headline number for shippers and carriers is the timeline. APMT won the Suape concession in August 2022 and broke ground on 24 November 2024. Sany delivered the full equipment package — two remotely operated STS cranes, seven remote-controlled RTGs, two electric reach stackers, two electric empty handlers, one electric forklift and 14 electric terminal tractors, 28 pieces in total — on a single project cargo vessel that arrived on 5 March 2026. Brazilian Vice President Geraldo Alckmin inaugurated the terminal on 12 June 2026 as Latin America's first fully electrified container terminal.

The first commercial vessel call followed roughly seven months after the equipment delivery vessel arrived. Inaugurations are political events; operational proof came with the Maersk Ganges.

Herllon Rossato Rossdeutscher, head of operations at APM Terminals Suape, said: "This first commercial operation marks the effective start of terminal activities following an extensive development, testing and readiness phase. It validates the operational capabilities we have built and begins a new chapter focused on delivering greater efficiency, predictability and reliability for our customers and partners."

Why the single-supplier model matters

The Suape deal marked the first time APMT contracted with one supplier — Sany — for virtually all equipment at a new terminal. APMT signed the agreements in June 2024, alongside parallel contracts with ZPMC, Sany, Kuenz, Shacman and ABB for Maasvlakte II, MedPort Tangier, Côte d'Ivoire Terminal and Lázaro Cárdenas. At the signing, COO Olaf Gelhausen said APMT was "ramping up our capacity with cutting-edge products and technology."

The commercial logic for shippers: RTG yards, which do not require extensive civil works for crane rails, allow faster, more predictable delivery than RMG alternatives — critical given APMT's build schedule.

Can OEMs keep up with 30 projects?

APMT now has 30 major terminal projects in its pipeline, with €7-10 billion committed to developing four new terminals per year as it pushes to lift terminal capacity 30-35% by 2030. Brownfield expansions include Tanger Med, MVII Rotterdam, Lázaro Cárdenas, Pier 400 Los Angeles, Port Elizabeth and NTB Bremerhaven. Greenfield work spans Laldia in Chattogram, Bangladesh; Hai Phong, Vietnam; and multiple terminals in India, including Andhra Pradesh.

At the Siemens Cranes and Technology conference in Hamburg in May, Kay Geithner, managing director of APM Terminals Crane & Engineering Services, warned that the gap is widening between operators' investment plans and the equipment industry's ability to deliver capacity on time. She urged OEMs to scale production and use AI to cut delivery times, noting that bundled STS-plus-yard-plus-mobile packages now carry more weight in procurement.

Competitors are moving on similar timelines. Hanseatic Global Terminals, Hapag-Lloyd's terminal investment arm, signed a JV with Grupo Imetame on 23 December 2025 for a greenfield terminal in Aracruz, Espírito Santo — a 750m, 17m-deep finger pier over existing yard land, targeting 1.2m TEU and operations by mid-2028. HGT Aracruz signed Sany in July 2026 for six STS cranes and 20 RTGs.

In Bangladesh, APMT broke ground on 31 August 2026 on the US$550m Laldia Container Terminal at Chattogram, developed with the Chittagong Port Authority and QNS Container Services under a Bangladesh-Denmark government partnership. Laldia should be operational in 2030, adding more than 800,000 TEU and handling vessels up to 6,000 TEU — more than double Chattogram's current ~2,800 TEU limit.

Suape demonstrates the template: remote-controlled STS and RTG equipment, single-supplier procurement, first vessel call within roughly two years of groundbreaking. With 30 projects in the pipeline, APMT's pace now depends on whether OEMs can match it.