HIT, a Hutchison Ports terminal in Hong Kong's Kwai Tsing container port complex, has deployed the city's first 50-tonne electric reach stacker, a Sany Marine machine capable of stacking containers six high and fitted with a 360-degree intelligent driver-assistance system.

Reach stackers move boxes between quay, yard stack and road trucks — a duty cycle traditionally dominated by diesel because of the torque needed to lift fully loaded TEU and FEU units. A 50-tonne electric unit capable of six-high stacking brings battery drivetrain technology to a workload previously reserved for combustion engines.

The reach stacker enters service as HIT expands its rooftop solar array across 18 ship-to-shore (STS) cranes, a photovoltaic system expected to generate roughly 580,000 kWh per year and trim the terminal's draw from Hong Kong's electricity grid.

The machine is the latest piece in HPH Trust's decarbonisation programme, which targets a 30% reduction in emissions intensity by 2030 against a 2021 baseline. The trust had already cut combined Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 23.9% by the end of 2025, with renewable electricity supplying about 45% of total consumption across its terminals.

What has HIT electrified so far?

• A 50-tonne Sany Marine electric reach stacker — the first in Hong Kong
• 13 yard cranes converted from hybrid to fully electric drive during 2025
• Photovoltaic panels fitted to the machinery houses of 18 STS cranes
• Six Westwell autonomous electric trucks operating at Terminal 4 since April
• A shore-power feasibility study covering HIT's berths, launched in 2025

HIT is also studying battery-swapping systems for electric trucks, an architecture that could compress drayage turnaround times compared with plug-in charging at fixed depots.

What does the electrification push mean commercially?

For now, the equipment swap is a capex story for HPH Trust rather than a tariff event for ocean carriers or beneficial cargo owners. Quay-side decarbonisation rarely moves box-handling rates in the short term. What it does change is the carbon profile that ocean carriers can present to shippers in scope-3 emissions reporting — a metric large cargo owners increasingly track as they tighten supply-chain sustainability clauses in annual tender documents.

A terminal running a higher renewable share gives carriers a defensible lower-emission baseline to pass through to BCOs, sharpening HIT's commercial position on trade lanes where shippers weight carbon intensity alongside transit time and cost.

How fast is HIT moving?

The pace stands out. HIT upgraded 13 yard cranes to fully electric drive in 2025 alone, the same year it kicked off the shore-power feasibility study. The trust's 2030 emissions-intensity target sits roughly seven percentage points away from where it finished 2025 — a gap the operator is closing through three parallel work streams: equipment conversion, on-site solar generation and autonomous electric drayage.

The six Westwell autonomous trucks at Terminal 4 went live in April, adding an electric landside leg to a yard already shifted off hybrid drive. The combination cuts diesel burn across both horizontal and vertical handling cycles and gives HIT a measurable fuel-saving data set to feed into its 2030 trajectory.

What comes next?

HPH Trust plans to expand the autonomous truck fleet and deploy further electric equipment, with HIT evaluating additional battery-swap infrastructure for heavy trucks. The trajectory points toward a terminal where every lift and every landside move runs on electricity, and where rival operators in Kwai Tsing will benchmark their own decarbonisation roadmaps against HIT's pace before the 2030 deadline.