BIFAlink


Award Winner Profile


The 70 m tall doors for the


Ariane 6 mobile gantry were shipped in


pieces to Dégrad des Cannes


www.bifa.org


Rob Waterman, chief executive of container


shipping and transport group CMA CGM, which also worked on the project, noted that it was a complex task. Challenges included the limited sailings to the destination port, as well as having to work around seasonal weather issues that dictated the installation schedule. “French Guiana is not a mainline destination,


Ian Radcliffe, commercial manager – freight at Spatial Global


so we had to find the right sailings. There were multiple transhipment points, and we had to make sure we delivered the doors on time,” Radcliffe said. “We were responsible for moving the doors to


French Guiana,” he continued. “Our customer, Jewers Doors, sent its own team, with all the necessary permits, to transport them from the port to the jobsite and install them on the gantry. “We have also done a couple of air freight


shipments for Ariane 6, uplifted on an Air France Boeing 777 aircraft from the UK via Paris Orly to Cayenne airport. It is tricky to fly cargo to French Guiana because Air France is the only airline that flies there, and you need an aircraft with enough cargo capacity. There are costs attached to that,” he pointed out.


Rocketing to success


Spatial Global, which won the BIFA Project Forwarding Award 2019, impressed the judges with its shipments of components for the Guiana Space Centre in South America


PROJECT FORWARDING AWARD SPONSOR


Long journey Chris Jewers, managing director and owner of the door manufacturer, said: “This has been a very long journey for us and Spatial Global was the only supplier that we wanted to partner with on this major project because of its knowledge, expertise, vigilance and competence.” There will be additional work for Spatial Global as the Ariane 6 project goes on; this will involve sending spare parts for alterations, maintenance, repairs and servicing, Radcliffe said. CMA CGM’s Waterman added: “We look


forward to continuing to work with Spatial on future Ariane Space Projects and developing our working partnership.” Spatial Global also regularly moves doors for


“Often in this business you are just concentrating on moving boxes around the world – but it is what is inside them, or where they eventually end up, that is interesting,” explained Ian Radcliffe, commercial manager – freight, at Spatial Global. That was certainly the case last year when


Spatial Global moved two 70 m tall doors for a mobile gantry to Kourou in French Guiana for the Ariane 6 European Spaceport Project. The 90 m high gantry stores and protects the


Ariane 6 rocket until launch, when it is retracted and rolled away on 141 m long rails – a process


14


Following the announcement of category winners in January, BIFAlink profiles the successful companies showcasing the service, innovation or attitude that caught the judges’ eyes. For your chance to shine start thinking about your submission for the 2020 BIFA Freight Service Awards (competition opens in summer 2020).


that takes 22 minutes. The doors were shipped in pieces using 40 ft


open-top containers. The components came from multiple European suppliers and sailed from ports in the UK, Germany and Romania to Dégrad des Cannes.


aircraft hangars and fire stations. However, the range of sectors it supports is diverse. For instance: “Other projects we are working


on include amusement parks in the Middle East, Japan and the US; professional football clubs in North America; fixtures and fittings for The Londoner Hotel; Burberry Christmas baubles to the US; FIFA World Cup programmes; and Madame Tussaud’s in New York,” Radcliffe said. “We do not really see any of these things as a


major challenge because we do them day in, day out. But when you step back and look at a project afterwards, it is actually quite impressive to see what you have achieved.” • This was Spatial Global’s third BIFA Award to date. It scooped the Special Services prize in 2010 and Project Forwarder in 2013.


May 2020


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