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Project Cargo Headaches

Handling and shipping complete cranes or other heavy machinery between continents can be challenging enough. Faced without the proper paperwork, the task can become a nightmare unless the freight forwarder involved is prepared to pull all the stops.

In a particular case, Arshiya Logistics of Qatar illustrates some of these challenges and how they were able to complete the job to their customer's satisfaction.

Last month Arshiya Logistics Qatar, shipped a 750 t Manitowoc crane from Mesaieed (Qatar) to Masan (Korea) for a Korean multinational.

The crane was picked up at QAFCO Fertiliser complex located in Mesaieed Industrial City, 40 Km south of Doha, on the east coast of Qatar peninsula and transported in sections to Doha port.

The shipment posed a number of problems from the start.

Firstly there was no direct service between Doha, the port of loading and Masan. Secondly the client wanted the consignment to be shipped on one vessel, e.g. boom, main body and cantilever for which a solution had to be found.

In the end with the help of its parent company, which is one of 13 top companies with its own shipping license in Qatar, Arshiya Logistics managed to book the crane onto the Pacific Spirit, a RoRo vessel operated by Hoegh Line.

As expected, there were also a number of safety and security regulations that had to be observed both in the loading and transfer of the consignment on land and in the port.

“Loading at Qafco’s site was difficult,” says Jigar Shah, general manager of Arshiya Logistics. “We needed a special permission and police escort just to move the empty low bed trailers to the project site.”

The consignment consisted of 106 pieces and none could be shipped loose. “Imagine a puzzle with giant pieces that all needed to fit optimally into a confined space. This required quite a bit of planning by the Arshiya operation team including Vaibhav Malpekar senior business development executive and Sunil Dakua senior logistics executive.

In order to transport the crane, 38 flat bed trailers and 18 low bed trailers were used, as well as 6 long trailers measuring 16 m each.

After arriving in the port the crane had to be carefully transferred onto 40 Mafi trailers and lashed down in strict compliance with safety requirements.

This operation was performed using a 100 t Gottwald mobile harbour crane. The main body of the crane, measuring 3.2-3.5 m in width, which meant that since the Mafis were only 3 m wide the crane operator had to jack the body up using wireless remote control.

“It would have been easier to use higher capacity trailers”, says Shah. However due to tugmaster capacity restrictions, 40/45t Mafi trailers had to be used.

Furthermore there were insufficient trailers on the terminal. To make up the numbers additional trailers were being brought in on the vessel, which had to be unloaded first.

As the actual shipping date differed from the original booking date the crane had to be stored on the terminal.

Finding space for packages with a volume of 3072.51 cbm demanded more than the usual resourcefulness; it also required special permission from the Customs & Ports General Authority.

After two days delay in port, the crane was finally loaded on to the vessel. The voyage to Massan took 30 days.

On completion of the project, Arshiya Qatar provided full survey report to its client.

Despite some delay but thanks to cooperation from everyone involved including the shipping line, the Qatari traffic department and police escort, the client was satisfied with the shipment.

Jigar Shah commented: “As with many projects, we are dealing constantly with the unexpected. However, thanks to our efficient and professional approach we have been able to satisfy our clients.”

“Project Cargo is not just a gamble on rates, it depends a lot on seeking and providing a personalized solutions and understanding of customer needs,” he adds.

Arshiya Logistics recently joined the International Freight & Logistics Network.

“Project cargo has proved to me to be one of the key growth areas for IFLN. We welcome freight forwarding companies with the necessary expertise to the Network and help them build new business with other IFLN Members in the future,” commented Michel Vanlerberghe president of the IFLN Group.