The patented High Bay Store Boxbay is an automated container handling system that stacks containers up to eleven stories high. It delivers more than three times the capacity of a conventional yard with enhanced performance, so the footprint of terminals can be reduced by up to 70 % and enables any container to be accessed individually without moving any other. Traditionally containers are stacked one on top of the other, which means many containers have to be moved to access containers lower down in the stacks.

Automated stacking of containers

An automated truck crane is used to lift containers on and off external trucks. Containers for the landside operations move in and out of Boxbay on underground conveyor belts before being lifted to their slot in the rack by stacker cranes.
The HBS proof of concept provides 792 container slots. A full industrial HBS yard behind the two under construction berths of Jebel Ali Terminal 4 would be able to handle more than three million containers per year. The stacker cranes and truck handling cranes will be operated in full automation. The shuttle carrier will start testing with a driver at first during the pilot operation phase.
Boxbay is designed to be fully electrified and will be the only container yard that can be powered by solar panels on its roof.
_{(source: SMS group)}