AAL successfully completed the movement of six giant gantry cranes from Lazaro Cardenas on the Mexican west coast to Veracruz on its east coast, booked by AAL’s Tramp & Projects team. The shipment was carried out by the AAL Brisbane on behalf of a leading provider of port equipment, engineering and productivity solutions.
The six Rubber Tyred Gantry Cranes (RTGs) will be utilised at the Hutchison Ports ICAVE, a specialised container terminal at Veracruz. Each unit weighed up to 190 tonnes and 28m height, 26m length and 13m width. A combination of their weight and extreme size dimensions meant that AAL was one of the few carriers with the specialist skills, expertise and vessels to safely and efficiently fulfill the shipment.
Nicola Pacifico explained: ‘Given the challenges of size and weight, our large A-class was the perfect choice for our customer. The planning required for such a project cannot be underestimated either and we worked closely with our customer to evaluate any options at every stage. During planning, we undertook highly detailed modelling and extensive engineering calculations to ensure that ship and team were fully prepared and equipped to perform safely and accurately. Significantly, with AAL’s engineering teams, crews, vessels and operations all owned and managed from within our own Group, we could offer our customer the very highest levels of flexibility, control and assurance.’
Marc Willim added, ‘We have worked hard to build an operating fleet and engineering capability that can satisfy even the most complex project and heavy-lift cargo operations – anywhere in the world and at any time. Multi-million-dollar cargo requires expert handling and, when every dollar counts in today’s challenging markets, we go the extra mile to create customer solutions that deliver on safety, but also cost and time efficiency – and that’s really when every moment of our 2 decades of experience in this sector comes into play.’
Source: AAL