The Friday Flyer - February 14th 2014

Reports flying out of the Russian media this week suggested that a court decision to ground Polet Airlines' AN 124 freighters had gone ahead, which would result in a potential increase in market rates for the remaining aircraft of this type.

Polet Airlines, however, has denied these reports, stating that the airline is taking measures to cancel the Moscow Arbitration Court decision. An appeal has been sent to the court but it remains to be seen whether the Russian airline's attempts will come to fruition or not.

Elsewhere, there are concerns among Australians with regards to the newly implemented national law for heavy vehicles, which was brought into effect by the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) on Monday.

Despite positive responses from some industry players, such as the Australian Trucking Association (ATA) which has publicly welcomed the new law, others are less optimistic, with the Transport Workers' Union suggesting that the regulator's implementations will not address economic pressures on drivers.

This week's Friday Flyer is sponsored by Liebherr Maritime Cranes, which offers a perfectly balanced portfolio of innovative heavy lift solutions. The state-of-the-art mobile harbour crane range has a maximum lifting capacity of up to 208 tonnes and even up to 416 tonnes in tandem operation. Liebherr's heavy-duty deck cranes provide lifting capacities of up to 450 tonnes.

In the corporate world

The Pella shipyard has bought the Sietas shipyard in Hamburg, and will take over its operations from March 10, 2014. In Canada, NSCG Crane & Heavy Haul Services has acquired Mullen Rigging and Industrial Services Inc.

All investigations concluded to date by Liebherr crane experts have shown that its LR 11350 crane was not the cause of the accident at the Itaquerao Stadium in Sao Paulo on November 27, 2013.

Wilh. Wilhelmsen Holding ASA (WWH) saw a positive growth in deep sea volumes and maritime services in Q4 2013, while HAROPA recorded a six percent rise in sea traffic in 2013.

Tiong Woon's net profit increased by 46 percent for the six months ended December 31, 2013, with turnover for its heavy lift and haulage division rising by 1 percent.

Capacity developments

NBR Offshore Logistics now has a new 350-tonne capacity crawler loading platform - the C400PL (pictured top right).

National Shipping of America (NSA) has partnered with Rickmers-Linie (America) to provide more global connections to Puerto Rico shippers, and expand breakbulk services to the island.

Cargolux has ordered an additional 747-8 freighter from Boeing, while Ferus Smit shipyard delivered the 8,400 dwt multipurpose vessel Arklow Bank (pictured bottom right) to Arklow Shipping.

Shipments of the week

Globalink handled the 3,500 km road transportation of three 650-tonne mills - which had to be disassembled into 50-tonne pieces - from China for a gold mine in the southeast of Kazakhstan.

EMS Chartering transported four 130-tonne ABB-manufactured transformers (pictured top right), which had the dimensions 6.1 m x 4.8 m x 4.7 m, from Bad Honnef to a pontoon on the river Rhine, where they will be delivered downriver to Antwerp before being shipped to Derince.

Wiesbauer has completed a series of tests on a 62 m Vestas V126 wind turbine blade at the manufacturer's production facility in Lem using a Scheuerle InterCombi SP with a rotor blade adapter (pictured second right).

Atlantica Tender Drillling's 15,000-tonne semi-submersible Beta platform was transported from Dalian to Rio de Janeiro on the deck of Coscol's semi-submersible heavy transport vessel Tai An Kou.

Wagenborg Nedlift has lifted a fully equipped absorber column (pictured bottom right), which weighed 258 tonnes, onto its foundations at OCI's ammonia plant at the Chemelot site in Geleen, the Netherlands.

Other notable projects reported by HLPFI this week can be seen on the archive news area of our website.

Got some project news of your own? Send it in to editorial@heavyliftpfi.com

On the move

Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL) is now open in Barcelona, while Van der Vlist now has a presence in Schermbeck, Germany. StederDelta Group has expanded in Romania with a second office in Bucharest and Seaway Heavy Lifting has appointed Peter de Bree (pictured) as its new chief operating officer, replacing Huib Oosterveld.

Network news

The XLProjects (XLP) network has welcomed MBS Logistics GmbH from Germany, and Representaciones Maritimas, S.A de C.V. from Mexico to its list of members, while Wilhelmsen Ships Service Oman, legally registered as Towell Barwil Co LLC, has joined the Project Cargo Network (PCN). Venezuela's Agencia Amerisur y Cabeña de Carga has joined the Global Project Logistics Network (GPLN).

All about Evie

Evie was surprised this week with the sight of English teacher, Rosie Morrison, taking a bath in a large pothole on a road in Mpumalanga, South Africa.

Frustrated by the deterioration of the R36 road between Machadodorp and Mashishing caused by heavy duty trucks transporting equipment to the mines, Morrison donned her wetsuit and treated herself to a bubble bath in one of the larger potholes.

The tongue-in-cheek photographs popped up in various national newspapers, and prompted the Mpumalanga department of transport to claim that the road would be cleaned up by 2015.