Whether car tyres or wooden beams – what industrial machinery and plants produce often weighs just a few kilogrammes. In contrast, the production machinery itself weighs in at several thousand tonnes.
In recent months, Logwin has realised two large transportation projects for the Krefeld, Germany machinery and plant manufacturer Siempelkamp.
The logistics service provider delivered an entire plant for the production of MDF boards to Thailand. Logwin also shipped components, some weighing up to 95t, for a press for truck chassis beams to India.
Thailand: 6,000 tonnes and 150 containers
An MDF board consists of many small wooden particles saturated with binders and then forced together under great pressure. Manufacturers require plants with glue-mixing stations, hydraulic presses and handling equipment for the finished products.
Around 50% of engineered wood boards around the world are manufactured on machinery from Siempelkamp. One of these production plants is currently being constructed for a manufacturer of MDF boards in Rayong, Thailand, 200km southeast of Bangkok.
Most of the components come from Krefeld, where Siempelkamp has its headquarters. The company manufactures other parts in Wuxi near Shanghai.
Logwin transported the plant components to Thailand via the ports of Hamburg and Shanghai. 150 heavy-cargo elements with a total weight of almost 6,000t were shipped by sea, in addition to around 150 containers with smaller components.
Other parts for the plant were manufactured by European suppliers, and Logwin arranged for these to be transported by partners via Genoa, Helsinki and Göteborg. It took twelve shipments to carry all the plant parts to Rayong.
“We had to make countless phone calls before all the shipments were finalised,” said Manuel Pohl, Project Manager Ocean Freight Export at the Logwin business segment Air + Ocean.
“You can’t complete a project of this size without perfect coordination.”
A quick rethink needed
Logwin received Siempelkamp’s initial enquiry at the end of July 2011, and the final ship reached the port of destination in Laem Chabang – Thailand’s largest port around 80km east of Rayong, at the end of February 2012.
It was from here that Logwin organised the two-hour truck drive to the construction site. Despite detailed planning it was at times necessary to rethink arrangements quickly.
“The empty truck drove to the port on the day before the ship was due to arrive in order to test the route for transportation,” Pohl said.
However, no information signs had warned that a four-inch layer of asphalt was going to be laid overnight. The result was that a bridge was too low for the loaded truck to pass the next day.
“We had to change the route at short notice, but the massive cargo still arrived on time,” Pohl said.
Trained employees were required to handle the large and heavy consignments in addition to special documentation, loading equipment like crossbeams, chains and loops.
Five Logwin staff from Germany and Thailand worked on the project.
“We are extremely satisfied,” says Thomas Dahmen, head of logistics at Siempelkamp.
“Our specialists from Germany were on site with Logwin’s employees, who were always available to answer our questions in Thailand. It was a great advantage that Logwin is so well-informed about all the local legal regulations.”
Siempelkamp estimates that the plant in Rayong will be fully constructed and ready to produce wooden panels sometime this summer.
India: 400 tonnes and 30 containers
Chennai is often called the “Detroit of India”. The car industry is one of the most important sectors in this metropolis in the southeast of the country. Commercial vehicle production also plays an important role, and Chennai will soon have a new production plant. Logwin delivered components for a press to form truck chassis beams on behalf of Siempelkamp in the winter of 2011/2012.
Logwin began shipping all the individual parts from Hamburg and Shanghai to Chennai in August 2011. The final shipments reached the Indian port in early 2012.
Logwin transported a total of thirty 40-foot containers and 400t of individual parts. The two largest of these weighed 95t each and had a volume of 85m³– weighing more than ten Indian elephants and as big as a small one-room apartment.
“One of the project’s biggest challenges was finding a break-bulk ship with sufficient capacity in time,” Pohl said.
“Heavy-lift ships sailing to India are usually full, since a great many production sites are currently under construction there.”
However, this did not impact the schedule.
“The construction of the new plant is making good progress thanks to Logwin’s excellent logistical arrangements,” said Ronald Hammerbeck, logistics manager at Siempelkamp.
13-year joint projects
Logwin realised its first transportation project for Siempelkamp 13 years ago. Over the past 18 months the two companies have intensified their collaboration. Logwin has arranged some ten transport projects for Siempelkamp in this time in addition to regular imports and exports by air and sea freight.
Logwin also manages cross-trade shipments and transportation within Asia on Siempelkamp’s behalf, also supplying Siempelkamp facilities around the world with replacement parts by air freight.
This text formed the basis for an article published in the German trade journal MM Maschinen Markt on 14 May 2012.
Image 1: Logwin transported 150 heavy-cargo elements with a total weight of almost 6,000 tonnes to the construction site in Thailand.
Image 2: By sea to India: Last winter Logwin transported components for a press to form truck chassis beams to Chennai.