In Cork Harbour on Friday operations are to commence in moving the first of three ship-to-shore container cranes built in Killarney that are destined for one of the world's largest shipping terminals located on the east coast of the US.

The three cranes were designed and manufactured in Liebherr's facility in Killarney, which specialises in cranes for shipping terminals and port operations. They are destined for the Maher Terminals at the Port of New York and New Jersey.

Cork's Doyle Shipping Group (DSG) is handling the transport operations for the cranes, including commissioning the transport vessel the Big Lift Baffin, which arrived in Cork Harbour on Sunday.

The various parts of the crane were manufactured in Killarney and were shipped to Cork either by road or by sea from the harbour in Fenit. They were then assembled in DSG's 44-acre Cork Dockyard terminal near Cobh.

However, the three cranes were only partially assembled, with the upper structure sitting on the lower structure during the transatlantic voyage. This is to keep the overall height of the shipped cranes low enough to pass under Bayonne Bridge, which connects New York to New Jersey.

Irish Examiner have more here to report on the heavy module-carrier transport ship Baffin which is berthed alongside Cork Dockyard.