14


Issue 2 2021 - Freight Business Journal


///HEAVY LIFT


Project and heavyliſt freight have been relatively immune from the turmoil that has gripped the rest of the global market in the past 12 months. Long may it remain that way, say the specialist forwarders active in the segment.


There and back on Antonov Airlines


Antonov Airlines has safely completed an urgent order to carry a 54-tonne rotor, used in power generation, from Ghana to India and back aſter repairs. Fellow member of The Heavy


Liſt Group (THLG), Rhenus Project Logistics USA, chartered the flight to carry the 10.50 m long, 3.89 m wide, 4.13 m high rotor from Accra, Ghana, to Mumbai, India, and back. Antonov Airlines used loading equipment designed by its


in-


house engineering team, while the external cranes for loading and unloading at airport were arranged by Rhenus.Antonov Airlines also developed technical instructions and Rhenus assisted the client in redesigning the skid to ensure the bladed rotor fitted inside the fuselage. Antonov Airlines commercial


executive, Vladyslav Ishchuk, said that the operation “required well-coordinated preparation and actions from both partners to fly such outsized and heavy cargo safely. Antonov Airlines showcased its flexibility by providing the AN-124 aircraſt on the required dates during an extremely busy period for the customer to minimise any disruption that could have been faced.” Ritesh Nair, global sales director


at Rhenus Project Logistics USA added that that the forwarder and airline “have an association going back over 15 years, which has


involved multiple charter


performances for mutual clients and is a testimony to the strength and expertise members of THLG bring to their clients.”


While the Covid crisis has deeply affected many sectors, the project logistics segment has been among the few fields that have managed to stay relatively stable, says managing director of Rhenus Project Logistics, Carsten Schroeter. He explains: “Project has


logistics always been


about overcoming challenges and solving complex logistical tasks. That is why our project managers were able to rise to the challenge and find solutions for our customers that allowed them to keep their projects running.” Despite tighter regulations


and new limitations, projects continued and new business opportunities arose as network partners and customers asked for Rhenus’ support in niche areas as travel restrictions prevented them from travelling there themselves. Compared with other crises, production


no assets have


been compromised by Covid and companies should be able to ramp up production quickly again. But the most important question remains whether


Covid will have unseen effects on the sector, says Schroeter who points out: “The current situation is in fact still fairly


bring an economic upswing and therefore an influx of new projects.” He


continues: “The key


offshore sector for renewable energy. “We have been working on


many interesting new projects in 2020. Besides that, we started looking into the latest software solutions for live tracking of project cargo and other systems that will allow customers to get updates on their cargo.” Rhenus has in the past


year opened two new project locations, in Canada and in South Africa. In 2020, project logistics specialists from Rodair and World Network Logistics joined the Rhenus team. Schroeter adds: “They bring


great value and knowledge, not limited to specific business fields. In Canada, we have Vancouver and Toronto and in South Africa we have colleagues


in


new in comparison to project planning horizons which range from two to ten years, so the effects of the current economic downswing were not foreseeable when the projects being worked on today were planned.” He says:


“Considering this,


it is important to ask the question:


Are the projects


that do not get signed today the outcomes of the Covid crisis? We cannot answer this question at this point in time, but we remain hopeful that the end of the pandemic will


to success in our business is diversity. While there are many promising segments, especially in


the renewable


energy sector, one field is never the sole driver of our business. However, we do see that we have not yet reached our full potential in many growing and even many already established industries. For example, last year we strengthened our activities in the construction sector with focused solutions for site logistics. At the same time, we are exploring new fields of business such as the


Durban now.


With this continuing growth, we are excited to take on new challenges in 2021.” Rhenus locations around the


world also hired new staff and some even grew in size. At the moment, the project division within


the Rhenus


Group


consists of 120 employees at 16 locations. Rhenus Project Logistics


remains a member of the THLG and CLC networks, “as we need good and reliable partners all over the world in order to offer customers the quality of logistics that they expect”.


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