November 19 - Glass is a commodity that certainly needs to be handled with care and Allseas Global Logistics showed its willingness to adhere to that rule during the recent relocation of a glass factory from Birmingham to Brazil.

Working with its sister company International Export Packers, Allseas was appointed by Pilkington to dismantle, pack, consolidate and transport everything from a huge furnace and glass ovens to a variety of other highly specialised and delicate equipment, all destined for a new 'home' in Santos, Brazil.

Allseas chartered BBC Greenland for the shipment, which was loaded at Ellesmere Port in the North West of England. The Pilkington shipment amounted to 90 cases totalling 2,100 cu m, and was accompanied on BBC Greenland by two other consignments - equipment for a petrochemical plant, and a delivery of oil and gas equipment, both into Santos. The three consignments together added up to a total 3,000 cu m.

"The relocation of the entire contents of a glass factory has clearly demonstrated and drawn on the strength and depth of what we offer as a group," says Allseas managing director Andrew Morris. "We put our own team of highly experienced plant and machinery engineers and movers into the factory, to unbolt, dismantle and load to flatbed trucks and low-loaders for onward road transport.

"The entire consignment was moved to our logistics centre at our main Newark site, where it was packed in the most efficient and space/cost-effective way for onward shipment. Much of the machinery is very delicate and requires very careful, expert handling. All was hermetically sealed in airtight packaging.

Allseas was also able to draw on the considerable range of handling equipment available at its international logistics centre at Newark, including a fleet of forklifts with lift capacity up to 27 tonnes, and 
significant onsite craneage.

"We have the in-house heavy lift engineering expertise to enable us to work out load points and adjust packing accordingly, even as far as liaising with the client to remove machinery parts to create optimum loads," says Mr Morris.

Allseas and International Export Packers are extremely buoyant at present and a reflection of this has been the promotion of Darren Sorsby, who has moved from Allseas' operations team in Brighouse to head up a new Out-of-Gauge Division at the group's headquarters in Newark.

Allseas is experiencing an increase in demand for factory relocations, mainly moving to developing/emerging markets, and is also very busy with a full range of project work. It is meeting high demand for power generation and oil & gas related projects in particular.

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