Foreign to foreign – from 3 different coasts to one destination

Ballmills are used in the rock or mineral grinding process.  When we were contracted  to transport this second hand one from Australia to a mining operation in Zacatecas State, Mexico, we had to deal with shell sections from Northern Australia, mill heads from Victoria and gear/mechanical components from Western Australia.

Due to the lack of liner service from Darwin, we trans-shipped the 20’ diameter shells over Singapore and Houston from where they were delivered by truck crossing in Laredo.

Our Mexico City office arranged the delivery into the mining operation from Veracruz and Altamira ports. 

WOW, how wide are those pieces?

Most of us like challenges. But, when the Alabama meltshop project notified us that they had ordered furnace covers measuring over 30’ wide from Monterrey, Mexico, close to the US border, but far away from any navigable water, some serious head-scratching started!

Thankfully, a detailed road survey to the Gulf coast revealed a relatively open route to the Port of Altamira. The biggest obstacle being numerous toll booths which either had to be bypassed or moved.

With a lot size of 1,800 cbm total, a geared vessel was chartered on a direct voyage basis to the port of Mobile. Again, due to the size of the cargo, a deck barge and tug were mobilized from Louisiana to make delivery to the plant’s river terminal.

Hansa Meyer’s Mexico City office offered valuable support in bringing this job to a successful conclusion.

Challenges:

Routing due to the extreme width; tight delivery schedule

...more critical cargo for the Alabama Meltshop Project

You might recall the cargo of cooling stacks we referred to in the previous newsletter. This 116 MT transformer was another crucial item to the project completion.  HMGT USA with the help of our Bremen colleagues, handled this shipment using liner service from Rotterdam to Mobile, AL.

Due to the need to rig for a 1 hook lift, “Big AL” was hired to come up river for the discharge from the barge to the SPMT. 

Challenges:

Low water in the German River system – coordinating the vessel booking and direct transfer from river to ocean vessel in Rotterdam.