ANALYSISAUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND
The coiled spool that had to be moved
ex-Houston, USA, into New
Plymouth, New
Zealand.
Australia, also gives an encouraging overview of Australia’s project market. “It is entering a growth phase, after a brief downturn due to the global economic chaos of 2008-2009, driven largely by the appetite worldwide for stable sources of non-nuclear energy, of which Australia is blessed with many. “ALE Heavylift considers the Australian heavy lift market as critical within its Southeast Asian growth strategy, not only for the movement and lifting of cargo onshore Australia, but also within Southeast Asia in servicing the fabrication yards at which a large proportion of the prefabricated modules for Australian plants are produced. ALE has established a footprint within the region to service both ends of the supply chain of large pre-fabricated plant.”
The importance of local knowledge
Local knowledge on the ground’ can be invaluable in surmounting the difficulties of moving out-of-gauge (OOG) cargoes across New Zealand’s long, mountainous topography, as a global oil drilling company found when it needed to position a huge spool coil at the Taranaki energy port of New Plymouth. Problems arose because the overseas forwarder booked the cargo into Auckland, 357 km from the intended final destination, and did not understand the local requirements in New Zealand. Worse, the cost of the onward journey had not been correctly budgeted for by the importer, so the stops had to be pulled out to ensure the customer received the freight without too many extra costs or penalties being incurred for late delivery. The 52 tonne spool measured over six metres by three metres by five metres, making it too large for road movement from Auckland via the normal tunnel route into New Plymouth. An individual solution had to be found by Cunningham Gill Ltd, the New Zealand broker whose director Jan Dupker used to work in Europe and train staff for various freight forwarding companies. Peter Manderson, special projects manager at Cunningham Gill Ltd, said extra pressure was added because the shipment was required urgently at site and it had arrived over Christmas, which also delayed the arrival of paperwork. In addition, the storage cost on the wharf at Auckland was extremely high, ruling out the possibility of waiting an unknown amount of time for a coastal ship connection. “We made requests directly through the port to ship captains, but because of the weight many of the coastal vessels refused to consider the move. The shipment could not even be moved off the wharf, because of the weight and size, without road pilots and permits,” said Manderson. “Our team rallied together with ideas and solutions from the people in-house and various contacts for OOG movements. The end solution was a road move through Wanganui to avoid the Mt Messenger Tunnel. This meant dealing with five different power companies and liaison with local councils for times to lift power and rail lines to enable the truck to move through safely. The entire journey took five days to complete and involved organising accommodation and meals for pilots and transport crews.” Although a one-off project, it had several spin-off benefits. Manderson said it began Cunningham Gill’s journey into the movement of OOG and project freight. “We realised that many customers need to include local knowledge at the start of a journey for oversized freight to avoid delays and extra costs once the shipments arrive. This is especially so for overseas clients who often have little understanding of New Zealand conditions or infrastructure. “There seemed to be a niche for us as a local New Zealand-based company with considerable brokerage and local experience, and the knowledge to offer solutions for one-off, project-type cargo. Results from this shipment have opened up significant business for us.”
Manderson said a lesson from this particular cargo is to work with the original forwarder to get the shipment onto a vessel that either sails directly to the final port, or at least to ensure that a coastal option is available and booked in advance. “The point of this is to highlight that project cargo needs special local knowledge and attention to detail, which overseas forwarders do not have. Local representation in New Zealand is vital for success with project cargoes,” said Manderson.
100 September/October 2011
International Export Group (IEG) is another specialist transportation company that is seeing business expand, having worked recently on moving four transformers for the Hay Point coal terminal in Queensland, and a canola oil processing plant.
Zoran Nastevski, IEG managing director, said that securing new customers directly involved in mining has been a highlight for the company and he expects business to pick up.
“The first six months of the year was very quiet because shipments were being delayed for various reasons. They are proceeding now and so [business] will surge,” he said.
Complex lifts
What this activity in mining and energy means ‘on the ground’ for project forwarders is increasing requests to handle more complex out-of-gauge lifts on behalf of the exploration and mining consignees.
Ulrich Stelling, managing director of
Austral Asia Line (AAL), which specialises in the breakbulk market, said the trend is to assemble offshore, then ship into Australia, which impacts on all players right along the supply chain.
“The engineering/procurement/ construction companies involved in these projects usually outsource all or parts of the entire project to specialists. For the largest projects the various materials, machinery, and equipment are generally sourced globally, and an increasing trend has been to pre-assemble modules in Asia.
“That means the cargo parcels have become larger in dimension and heavier in weight. That in turn means more complexity and a greater degree of difficulty to move
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