Terex has chartered a vessel to ship 30 Powerscreen, Finlay, and Terex Ecotec machines from Southampton, UK to Brisbane, Australia. It made the move to ensure timely delivery to customers in these times of logistical and supply chain delays, according to the company, working with DHL Global Forwarding’s Industrial Projects division.
“Towards the end of last year, our RORO (roll-on/roll-off) capacity to Australia was suspended due to port congestion, backlog due to COVID, and increased global demand,” said Claire Hamilton, Terex Supply Management and Transport, in a statement. “Vessels were overbooked and backlog was not reducing. While we were provided with an allocation of slots, this did not meet the demand for our products.
“Our equipment varies in size and weight,” she said. “Not only is lifting them on and off vessels difficult, safety of doing so is always our top priority. After exploring various options, we found a solution that enabled our machines to be tracked and secured onto a platform, which would be lifted by cranes and lowered into the hull of the ship.”
Prior to loading, the Terex Sourcing and Supply team worked with various stakeholders—including safety, engineering, logistics, operations teams within Terex, as well as external transport and shipping providers—with biweekly meetings. Specific engineering information was provided for each machine, and dates agreed among all parties for delivering machines to port. In total, the 30 machines weighed 1,092 metric tons when they were delivered to the Port of Southampton.
Even when at the port, support was provided to transfer the machines from storage to dockside, providing solutions as problems occurred, with Terex service engineers checking machines prior to loading and supporting stevedores at the dockside and on the vessel. Loading to the vessel was performed by tandem lift operation of the ship’s cranes and lifting platform. Embarkation and disembarkation to and from the ramp was undertaken using ramps on the quayside and in the ship’s hold. In total, it took eight days for all 30 machines to be safely loaded to the vessel.
“From the planning stages right through to the enormous operation of loading our equipment onto the vessel, all stakeholders worked proactively to ensure that our 30 machines were loaded safely to the vessel with no incidents or accidents,” said Hamilton. “It was a huge undertaking—constant collaboration between internal and external parties, working as a team, was a key contributor to success.”
The machines are currently enroute and expected to arrive in Australia in early March.
Source: Terex
About the Author
Rod Sutton
Sutton has served as the editorial lead of Construction Equipment magazine and ConstructionEquipment.com since 2001.
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