Matson Inc. has ordered bigger dockside cranes to service larger containerships being built for Hawaii’s dominant ocean cargo carrier.

Honolulu-based Matson announced the crane order with Tokyo-based Mitsui Engineering &Shipbuilding on Wednesday. A price was not disclosed, but the company said the new cranes are part of a $60 million upgrade and expansion of its container terminal at Honolulu Harbor.

Each new crane will be able to lift 65 long tons (145,600 pounds), up from 40 long tons (89,600 pounds) for Matson’s existing cranes.

The new cranes will replace three of six existing Matson cranes at the harbor. As part of the order with Mitsui, Matson’s three remaining older cranes will be upgraded with new electrical systems and fiber optic cables that will improve cameras on the cranes that read container numbers to help track shipments.

Besides being able to lift more, the new cranes will be taller and can reach farther out, which will be necessary to unload full loads on four bigger Matson ships under construction and slated for completion over the next three years.

The first new ship, the Daniel K. Inouye, is scheduled to arrive next year. The three new cranes are to be installed in early 2019.

Matson said its first two new ships, being built at Philly Shipyard in Philadelphia, will be the largest containerships ever built in the United States. They will be 850 feet long and able to carry the equivalent of 3,600 20-foot containers, or TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units). The capacity of Matson’s biggest existing ships is about 2,800 TEUs.

The next two new ships, slated for delivery in 2019 and 2020, are being built in San Diego by General Dynamics NASSCO and are designed to carry containers along with up to 800 vehicles in a covered garage. If these 870-foot ships were solely for containers, their capacity would be 3,500 TEUs.

Philly Shipyard also has committed to build four new ships for a would-be rival to Matson, TOTE Inc., which said it plans to start carrying cargo between the mainland and Hawaii in 2020 with two ships, followed by two more in 2021. One hurdle for TOTE will be securing state land at Honolulu Harbor for a container terminal operation. The state Department of Transportation has said it is in discussions with TOTE on the issue but can’t say whether potential room at the harbor exists to accommodate TOTE.