How we deliver out-of-gauge cargo without wheels

Gantry Crane Arm

At the port of Bremerhaven on March 6, 2020, parts of a gantry crane with a length of 32 meters and a total weight of 48 tons were onboard of EUKOR’s Asian Trust bound for Mombasa, Kenya. This shipment is part of a large project for building a new grain terminal facility near Mombasa.

To deliver heavy and out-of-gauge cargo without wheels we use special cargo handling equipment. For this project ex Bremerhaven to Mombasa, 80ft roll trailers, known as the longest of its kind that can cater cargo up to 24 meters long and 2.5 meters width, were used. Due to its size and shape being rather unusual, some people doubted if this could actually work.

But an excellent performance coupled with a close cooperation with all concerned parties from stevedores to ship’s crew and port & cargo operation managers made this shipment possible.

There are several factors we need to take into account when loading OOG cargo. For example, weather conditions, cargo handling equipment availability and cargo dimension to name a few. When given dimensions at the time of booking and actual size of the cargo upon delivery do not match, there goes the problem.

Capt. Jan Luenzmann

travelling supercargo specialist

Gantry arm after lashing

Captain Jan Luenzmann added on saying that this is why we do go through simulating and internal discussion with colleagues for successful stuffing prior to loading. For this time, as can be seen from the images on the below the center of gravity was pretty low and also the boom blocked up by wooden dunnage. This was a bit of challenge.

Many highly recognized this shipment as a successful case, not only for how we handled the enormous size and shape of the cargo, but also for how all the concerned parties within the WW organization has put everything together by combining commercial and operational competences and experiences in an agile way. It's probably the biggest single piece EUKOR ever delivered to Africa.

“We chose EUKOR very naturally because we had already used their vessels on this project, which we have been handling for several years, and the MAFI transport on Roll-on Roll-off ships is perfectly suitable for static transport as well. Their teams are efficient and trained in exceptional transport,” said SOGETRA Paris.

Mr. Raphaël Roche, a Sales Support Officer at WW Ocean – the sales agent for EUKOR in Paris France added "Our team has been working on this project since October last year. Our customer SOGETRA Paris, one of the freight forwarders specialized in selected large projects, chose EUKOR because we have proven that we have all the assets through our organization to expand beyond our traditional market segment. Also through a continuous communication with customer, along with coordination between colleagues from different functions, we were able to load the gantry crane arm and an extra parcel that accompanied the long arm successfully."

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