Glass factory goes to Santos

13 January 2011

Glass factory goes to Santos

The heavy lift vessel BBC Greenland recently took on the relocation of a glass factory from Birmingham in the UK all the way to Brazil.
Allseas Global Logistics was appointed by Pilkington to dismantle, pack, consolidate and transport everything from a huge furnace and glass ovens to a variety of other highly specialised and delicate equipment, all destined for its new home in Santos.
The company contracted the 119.8m long, 20.2m beam multipurpose heavy lift vessel BBC Greenland, which was loaded at Ellesmere Port. The Greenland is equipped with two sturdy NMF cranes situated on the port side, each with a lift of up to 250 tons for a combined 500 ton capacity.
The vessel was involved in loading at the port for two days. The delicate operation was performed by the ship’s cranes and assisted by various forklifts from the specialist transporter, ranging in capacity from 2 tons through to 25 tons.
The Pilkington shipment added up to 90 cases totalling 2,100 m3, and the use of the BBC Greenland was strategically planned to enable the shipment of two other consignments on the vessel, equipment for a petrochemical plant and a delivery of oil and gas equipment, both also into Santos. The three consignments together added up to a total 3,000 m3.
Allseas managing director Andrew Morris explained ‘We put our own team of highly experienced plant and machinery engineers and movers into the factory, to unbolt, dismantle and load to flatbed trucks and low-loaders for onward road transport.’
From the original glass factory site the cargo was transported to Allseas’ premises for packing and from there it went to the vessel. Mr Morris continued, ‘Much of the machinery is very delicate and requires very careful, expert handling.’
In the case of the Pilkington shipment, this meant all of it had to be hermetically sealed in airtight packaging before loading.
Due to the unusual nature of the consignment, a certain amount of strategic thinking was also needed for the loading operation itself. ‘We have the in-house heavy lift engineering expertise to enable us to work out load points and adjust packing accordingly, even as far as liaising with the client to remove machinery parts to create optimum loads’, said Mr Morris.
He added that cooperation between all the parties involved is the means to success in such projects. ‘A key advantage is close liaison between packers and movers throughout the project, to ensure the most efficient use of space, whether on truck or ship’, he concluded.

Source: Maritime

Author: Maritime