A Decent Project Freight Forwarding Operation is Reely Effective

UK – SOUTH KOREA – PHILIPPINES – Anyone who has experience of handling cable reels as cargo knows just how tricky they can be – whatever their size. With a natural tendency to roll and the likelihood of simply falling sideways if poorly controlled resulting in unacceptable damage to the reel itself they can require more than a little experience – especially when they weigh in at 58 tonnes. Project freight forwarding group Tuscor Lloyds recently took on the task of sending just such an item from Newcastle to Manila shipping via South Korea.

The drum itself contained a steel wire rope, thus accounting for the mass, which was ferried by road haulage to Felixstowe, three hundred miles distant. Although shipment from the local docks was possible the East Anglian port offered the opportunity for a reduced transit time and the more direct South Korean routing.

After loading two flat rack containers onto the UK exporting vessel onsite surveyors agreed to the lift plan put forward by the stevedores and using a heavy lift crane fitted with the appropriate gear moved the giant reel off the low loader and lowered onto the bed of dunnage spanning the two skeletal boxes, fitted out to spread the load and increase the friction bond between cargo and equipment.

Securing was ably carried out by the port stevedores using wooden chocks nailed in position with two tonne webbing lashings on each corner and four tonne webbing lashings to the arms of the reel. This ensured the cargo was completed secured to the bed of flat rack containers and would be safe for the ocean transit to the port of Busan, South Korea.

In Busan, after a safe transit, the operation was reversed, lifting the cargo from the vessel and placing on a low loader which then delivered the cargo by road to the Port of Masan. Here the consignment was again stowed onto two more flat racks, similarly equipped using wooden chocks and webbing lashings and ratchet straps, before a successful and timely, undamaged arrival at the Port of Manila.