Peel Ports said that three “megamax” quayside cranes arrived at the Liverpool2 container terminal, completing the final stage of their voyage from China.

Each crane is 92 metres high to the top of the frame, the same height as Liverpool’s iconic Liver building, and 132 metres high when the boom is raised.

The mega cranes are part of work on the second phase of the Liverpool2 project to provide additional capacity for growing volumes of cargo.

The super-structures were produced by Chinese company Zhenhua Heavy Industries Co (ZPMC), the largest heavy-duty equipment manufacturer in the world, as part of a contract with Peel Ports worth over £100 million.

A total of eight ship-to-shore megamax cranes and 22 cantilever rail-mounted gantry cranes are being supplied to Peel Ports.

The cranes set off from Shanghai on September 15, passing south-east Asia, India, the Arabian Peninsula and Africa via the Cape of Good Hope en-route to Liverpool in a journey of over 30,000km.

Their arrival follows Peel Ports announcing a record-breaking month for its container operations at the Port of Liverpool.

Quayside and landside throughput in October at exceeded all previous figures on record with year on year growth of 12%.

Peel Ports CEO Mark Whitworth said: “An increasing number of businesses are understanding that it makes more sense to ship products closer to their end destinations.

“The investment we’ve made in these cranes and elsewhere at the port is crucial to providing us with the capacity to meet growing demand, especially with Liverpool handling record container volumes in October.”