These giant cranes show why the next fight in the US-China trade war could be so damaging
PORTSMOUTH, Va.— Perched in the cab of a crane roughly 15 stories above the ground, Bobby Rascoe toggled a black joystick and zoomed out over the Elizabeth River and the East Coast’s third-largest port.
These towering Chinese cranes are the only models that can reach far enough and high enough to handle the world’s largest seagoing cargo carriers. Operators like Rascoe maneuver six-ton steel claws suspended beneath their air-conditioned command posts to lift more than 20,000 shipping containers from a single vessel.
“It’s like the Cadillac of cranes,” said Rascoe, 44, of Virginia Beach. “It’s very smooth.”
It also may be among the last ones installed here, depending upon the results of President Trump’s meeting late Friday night Washington time with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Group of 20 summit in Japan.
link
