THE investigation into the crane collapse at Southampton Container Terminals earlier this year has ruled out a design fault as the cause, it has emerged.

Human error has already been rejected by insurers as the reason for the incident, which happened in January this year and has severely hampered operations at the container port ever since.

Now investigators believe a combination of factors are to blame for the sudden collapse, but there are no conclusions published as yet.

Nobody was injured when the Morris-manufactured crane fell onto containership Kyoto Express, crushing several containers holding largely low-value cargoes such as scrap metal and wastepaper.

However the incident brought activity to a halt at the container terminal, causing ships to be diverted to rival ports. Operation of all 11 cranes was suspended for health and safety checks.

Even today not all of the cranes have been returned to normal operation, with industry sources suggesting it will take the terminal, the UK's second biggest, until the end of the year to recover fully from the disruption.

As previously reported by the Daily Echo, the container port has placed an order for two new super-cranes - worth a combined £10m -which are able to span vessels 22 boxes wide - will come into operation in August 2009.

One of the new super-cranes will replace crane 8, which collapsed. They are in addition to the two super-cranes that will be commissioned into operation in June.