HEAVY LIFT\\\


The new Dover Cargo Terminal West (DCT) is open for business including heavyliſt and project work, says Nik Scott-Gray, general manager at Port of Dover Ccargo. While Dover is of course best known as the UK and Europe’s busiest ferry terminal, it is also in the market for general cargo, having now completed the move of its non- ferry operations from the older, smaller general cargo berths to the new facility. Fruit and other produce is


the main business of DCT, says Nik Scott-Gray, but the same factors that make Dover ideal for this type of traffic also come into play for project work, he explains. Dover sits right on the main shipping lanes to and from the north-west Continental ports, so vessels can call with minimal loss of time and it has


Issue 2 2020 - Freight Business Journal


Dover is open for project business


more than adequate for the sorts of markets envisaged, says Nik Scott-Gray. There is also a further berth


excellent road links to London and the South-East of England. Now, though, the port has


some additional advantages, he points out. “We have two new 120-tonne capacity cranes which, operating in tandem, can easily liſt up to 200 tonnes, which is significantly higher than before. Also, we now have two quaysides of 250 metres with 10m alongside, with a huge amount of space behind them


for storage of large pieces.” The port’s crane operators


have also over the years built up considerable expertise in handling large pieces of cargo and now, with the new cranes, they have the tools to do even more. There is also the possibility


of even larger liſts using the onboard cranes


on some


heavyliſt vessels – Dover can handle ships of up to 225m long,


available (berth 4) and, if need be, the cruise terminal can also be used at quieter times for project vessels. (This is where Dover handled project cargoes including transformers for a local power station before DCT was built.) Dover would be in an ideal


position to attract either one- off chartered vessels or a call on one of the breakbulk liner services that sail virtually past its front door on their way to and from the Continent. Dover is as close as any major


port to London and even the south Midlands and access for abnormal loads via the A2 trunk road is unimpeded but, unlike other ports in the South it can


The heavyliſt shipper’s flexible friend


Founded in the Netherlands in 1995 but headquartered in Singapore since 2009, AAL is a global multipurpose shipping operator serving the breakbulk, heavy liſt and project


the world’s largest cargo


industry. It has grown into one of


carriers


with customers in industries like energy, oil and gas, mining, forestry, leisure, agriculture and construction. AAL offers what it terms liner


and semi-liner services. The essential difference between the two, says marketing and communications manager, John Pittalis, is the scheduling of their respective sailings: “A liner service operates on a strict rotation of scheduled sailings – whereby customers who use the service can depend upon the fixed routing, schedule integrity and base ports along the routes. Semi-liner services also offer fixed routes and regular sailings – but not on a fixed schedule. They also feature a higher degree of flexibility on port calls.” AAL operates two scheduled


liner services between Asia and Oceania – along either the Australian East or West Coasts. Until recently it also operated a third liner service between the Far East and Middle East. It is currently developing the


trade lane between Europe, the US with Asia with fixed route sailings and, subject to sustainable trade


flows, “these will turn to liner models from current semi-liner models,” says Pittalis. “All are very well-established, trusted and relied upon by multiple industry sector shippers. In fact, we have operated the Asia-Oceania service for almost 25 years, the first multipurpose liner service in the region and still the most popular.” AAL’s semi-liner sailings


there. “Globally, the multipurpose


sector is heavily reliant upon project cargo, breakbulk and other commodities like steel and bulk concentrates,” Pittalis continues: “We are directly affected by the geopolitical climate and its impact on industrial capital expenditure across the board in major industrial verticals like energy,


by weeks - as the reopening of its local factories is delayed and consumer spending


remains


accordingly low. Having said this, forecast global demand for metals and bulk commodities for 2020 remains unchanged, apart from an adjusted outlook until


the


second quarter of the year, due to the situation in China.” However, one


significant


forecast change to the global cargo flow in 2020 is the expected growth in cargo volumes from China to the US, as China works to fulfil the terms of its Phase One trade deal. The AAL fleet currently includes


through Europe offer around the world connections – east towards Asia and west to the Americas with highly flexible port calls en-route. UK ports are offered on an inducement basis, subject to sustainable volumes of cargo justifying the deviation and port costs. Pittalis explains: “Certainly, the


UK presents opportunities, in particular off-shore wind projects. Just recently we executed a project serving the port of Felixstowe, delivering a deck full of 35m tall rubber-tyred gantries for a major port development project


mining, oil and gas, infrastructure and forestry.” He says that heavy liſt project


freight is currently subdued due to traditional seasonal weaknesses at this time of year and further pressured by higher fuel costs due to the new IMO 2020 sulphur regulations. Pittalis adds: “On top of this,


we have witnessed the recent appalling outbreak of the ‘coronavirus’ – a terrible situation for those regions most affected, like China. Whilst China works hard to contain the outbreak, freight recovery could be delayed


multiple sizes of specialist heavy liſt multi-purpose vessels (MPVs) and serves customers worldwide through tramp chartering, semi- liner and liner services. It is one of the sector’s largest by total tonnage and also the youngest. The fleet comprises a number of ‘megasize’ vessels (+30,000 dwt), that offer a cargo intake of about 40,000 cubic metres each and significant economies of scale for shippers, says Pittalis. AAL continues to reconfigure


its fleet or adding to it with suitable vessels. In fact, says Pittalis “we recently added 133,000 dwt/156,000 cbm of additional ‘megasize’ tonnage capacity to the fleet, to further differentiate our niche project cargo offering and strong position within the MPP sector.”


A custom engineering lifting service can help ease the burden on freight forwarders, says Poole-based specialist firm, Modulift. It has the expertise in many


different types of lifts and, as forwarders will know, every job is different, and so are the challenges faced. Working with a team of design engineers that are able to provide expert advice for all lifting requirements is essential in ensuring the project runs smoothly. Modulift is a specialist


designer and manufacturer of


equipment.


below-the-hook Its


team of


lifting in-


house design engineers have over 50 years of combined industry knowledge, and can offer custom designed and


engineered lifting solutions,


complex rig design, lifting products with high quality assurance requirements or solutions for super heavy lifts. For example, in a project with


marine engineering specialist MAATS Tech, it supplied a custom below-the-hook solution to lift an 85-tonne load from the dockside onto a vessel at Hyundai Heavy Industries’ shipyard in Ulsan. Based on the information provided about the load and given there were no significant headroom restrictions to speak of, Modulift recommended a cost-effective solution that provided MAATS with a stable,


four-point lift.


The configuration is common, but the length of the spreaders


16 >>


are hooked by Moduliſt service


Forwarders


offer the twin advantages of minimal vessel deviation and enough space to lay down large cargoes. Nik Scott-Gray considers


that the port is thus in an ideal position to handle cargoes such as offshore wind turbines or the huge range of actual and potential projects in London and the South-East. As such,


15


Dover will be marketing itself at exhibitions like Breakbulk and AntwerpXL. Looking to the future, there


is a project to create a further 15 hectares of storage area by reclaiming land from the sea, which will keep Dover on top of future demand even if, as expected, the produce traffic also continues to grow.


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