From Dubai to Constantza
A control unit for an offshore oil platform transhipped to its destination.
Scarce transport capacities at sea aren’t only affecting shippers and forwarders, but touching on heavylift operations too. The project logistics and breakbulk unit of Gebrüder Weiss, headed by Franco Ravazzolo, found a ship and a route from Dubai to the Black Sea.
There isn’t really a ‘standard’ way to complete a project logistics task. Unusual solutions are always in demand, particularly when shipping space is scarce, even for oversized cargo, as is currently the case, and when the routing of many shipping lines isn’t necessarily based on a timetable, but rather on the best freight margins.
Little shipping space, heavy cargo
The heavylift and project department of the Austrian company Gebrüder Weiss (GW) recently faced precisely these issues when it was commissioned to transport a control unit from the ‘free zone’ of Dubai (UAE) to Constantza (Romania). The unit was due to be installed offshore in an oil drilling platform there.
Franco Ravazzolo, head of the project logistics and breakbulk division of GW, is aware of the core problem. “It’s currently very difficult to obtain westbound breakbulk or ro-ro departures from the Persian Gulf to Europe. Vessels from Europe no longer turn around in the region, but rather mostly continue to India and then even further to China, where higher freight yields can be achieved.” So GW had to be particularly resourceful.
Added to this were the dimensions of the unit, which came to 22.6 m long, 6.7 m wide and 5.2 m high. Not to mention the total weight of 52 t.
Third transhipment; reliable partner
The best possible solution arrived at in the end was to load the unit as breakbulk on a containership. The cargo was loaded onto the Teno containership, operated by the shipping line Hapag-Lloyd; it has the capacity to carry 8,000 teu, but boasts no on-board cranes. Transhipment was thus carried out by the container gantry cranes in each of the terminals involved.
More facilities were involved than Ravazzolo had initially planned for. “The whole project was additionally complicated by the fact that there are no direct shipping connections from Jebel Ali (Dubai) to the Black Sea. We therefore had to organise another transhipment stopover in Istanbul.”
Once again, this complex project showed that preparation is everything. After two months of planning, the transport finally proceeded without incident. The entire route – including transhipment – was completed in less than five weeks.
A project of the dimensions such as this one only works if the right local partners are on board too. Ravazzolo was satisfied with the performance of Wilhelmsen Ship Services in Dubai, amongst others. The ship selected, the inventive route planning and the interaction between the partners involved was smooth and brought about the success of the project cargo task.