Project freight forwarder deugro has delivered critical equipment, including 10 storage bullets, from the port of Zhangjiagang, China, to the port of Antwerp, Belgium.
The equipment had single weights of up to 738 tonnes, measurements of up to 47.8 m x 9.2 m x 11.5 m and an overall weight of more than 6,890 tonnes.
Jumbo Fairplayer, a DP2 heavy lift crane vessel, and Jumbo Fairmaster, a K3000-class heavy lift vessel which is one of only two ships from the K-class family with a combined safe working load (SWL) of 3,000 mt, were used to transport the equipment.
“A challenge was to identify and secure sufficient vessel space on suitable heavy lift vessels with the appropriate lifting capacities and within the tight schedule of only six weeks, from the receipt of the order to loading,” said Kai von Taube, head of global chartering at deugro.
“Such vessels… are limited and often booked for considerable periods in advance. However, thanks to our many years of experience and long-standing strategic carrier relationships, we were able to secure the required vessel space within just two weeks,” he added.
Jumbo Fairplayer, loading two C4 product storage bullets and three C4 import storage bullets with a total volume of 25,286.2 cu m weighing 2,857.8 tonnes, set sail first. Jumbo Fairmaster, with two PGP and three CGP storage bullets with a total volume of 25,286.2 cu m weighing 3,690 tonnes, followed three weeks later.
The second vessel faced a potential issue of heavy congestion at Gangxin port in China, however deugro was able to provide additional lashing and wielding crews which persuaded the terminal to allow earlier berthing. Had this not happened, the vessel would have had to lie at anchor for almost a month before berthing.
For each of the shipments, four of the five storage bullets were loaded and stowed on the vessel’s weather deck and the fifth one in the lower hold. To safely stow and secure each of the four storage bullets on the weather deck, some of the vessel’s tween deck hatch covers were placed on the weather deck to act as load spreading equipment.
The shipments covered 12,958 nautical miles (23,998.2 km), taking 53 days.
In November 2024, HLPFI reported that freight forwarder AsstrA Associated Traffic had delivered OBSL modules for Ineos Project One.
