Unalaska, AK – Horizon Lines is planning to expand its operations at the city dock in Dutch Harbor by adding a larger, more powerful crane this fall.

The new crane is expected to arrive in late September, according to Horizon's Dutch Harbor terminal manager, Mike Lynch. Lynch said that as demand for containerized seafood product increases, Horizon's nearly 40-year-old existing crane is being pushed to the limits of what it can do.

"Basically, it's done a heck of a job," Lynch said. "But you can't stretch it. You can't make it taller without major dollars."

The new crane was bought used from a dock facility in Long Beach, California. It can lift 10 long tons more than the current crane, and its boom is long enough to load one additional row of containers.

Lynch said that expanding Horizon's loading capacity won't necessarily increase the company's traffic in Dutch Harbor, where it currently loads and offloads one international freighter bound for Yokohama, Japan, and one smaller domestic vessel shuttling between here and Tacoma, Washington, each week. But it will allow for those ships to be loaded faster and, in some cases, with more containers.

Sinclair Wilt, general manager for Alyeska Seafoods' Unalaska plant, said that would make life easier for the port's seafood processors.

"There've been times when the vessel has to sail, and some of our products were left behind because they didn't have time to get them aboard," he said. "An extra crane would solve that."

Horizon expects to keep using the old crane, which has spent two decades at the city dock. Lynch said its most important function will be as a backup crane.

"Worst-case scenario, the big crane has a problem and the little crane's got to cover," he said. "We might have to refigure our wing-slot that we can't reach, but we can still get the majority of the cargo on the vessel. Life keeps moving."