deugro announced that it transported two oversized heavy-lift drum sections for the pulp and paper industry from China to France.

The shipment is for Golbey PM1 Project, and deugro said its Germany and China units cooperated for the transport.

"deugro's scope encompassed the transportation from the Port of Shanghai, China to the Port of Antwerp, Belgium, the inland waterway transport to the river Port of Frouard, France, as well as the subsequent on-carriage by various trailer configurations to the job site in Golbey, France," the freight forwarder said.

It added that its teams were engaged by their client Voith Paper more than 2.5 years prior to the transport taking place to investigate the overall feasibility and determine the maximum cargo size able to be transported.

deugro noted detailed planning and preparations were required to ensure the safe transport of the drums with dimensions of up to 32 x 5.6 x 5.7 meters and weights of up to 195 metric tons — especially on the complex on-carriage route from the closest river port to the plant.

To determine the most suitable routing, several route surveys, including turning simulations and swept path analyses, were conducted by dteq Transport Engineering Solutions along with local partners on deugro's behalf.

deugro said in line with the tight schedule and under the personal supervision of deugro Shanghai, the drums were loaded at the Port of Shanghai — on dship's MV Annie — and shipped on a last-in/first-out basis to the Port of Antwerp.

Here, the cargo was discharged to the quay, allowing the teams of deugro Antwerp to assemble and mount the cable guiding system onto the drums prior to loading the cargo onto the river vessel.

After arrival and discharge at the river Port of Frouard, the drum sections were delivered by road to the job site in Golbey under coordination by deugro Paris.

"The most challenging part of the journey was the manoeuvring through the many traffic circles and tight turns, as well as traversing the Town of Lunéville. To allow for safe navigation through the extremely sharp turns in Lunéville, we arranged the transfer from conventional THP trailers to self-propelled modular trailers using a jacking/stooling operation," said Ambra Gotsch, project coordinator, deugro Germany.

"After crossing the most critical turns in the city, the cargo was transferred back onto the THP trailers for the remaining on-carriage."

Ulf Langner, project manager operations, deugro Germany, said another operational challenge was the passing of a railway bridge near the Village of Méhoncourt.

Langner noted that six additional axle lines had to be mounted to the modular trailer to stay within the allowable bridge capacity determined by the road authorities, then dismantled after passing the bridge.