AUSTRIA – MONGOLIA – Lauterach based logistics group Gebrüder Weiss was tasked recently with transporting 12,600 LED street luminaires and lamp posts to Mongolia via the New Silk Road rail route for the lighting group Zumtobel. LED lighting has become an essential for both homeowners and local and national authorities looking to lower their electricity costs.
Within twelve months, more than 80 containers were delivered on schedule from Austria using the multimodal service to the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar. All this was done against the backdrop of an infrastructure project of the Mongolian government, for which the Zumtobel Group was commissioned two years ago to supply and install street luminaires.
Shipping these goods is not as easy as it might first appear and the risk of transport damage due to strong acceleration forces during the train transport leg was eliminated by means of special load securing within the container. During the approximately 30-day journey, the nine-metre-long lamp posts were securely stored in specially made wooden racks that prevented the cargo from sliding around in their containers. Franco Ravazzolo, Head of Projects & Break Bulk at Gebrüder Weiss, observed:
“We recommended choosing the rail option via the New Silk Road to the customer Zumtobel because we wanted to avoid problems that would have arisen due to time delays in sea transport as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.”
Strangely prophetic words as the goods were despatched not long before the Austrian government’s decision to lock down the entire country. The Zumtobel Group is an international lighting group and a leading supplier of innovative lighting solutions, lighting components, and related services and Alexander Rosa, Head of Sales Processes Zumtobel Austria, said:
“What we’d already experienced with complex project transports by rail was one of the reasons why we chose Gebrüder Weiss. The recommendation to use rail transport has proven to be spot on. With the lighting project in Mongolia, we have tapped into a new market that promises further potential in the future.”
Photo: The picture shows the fragility of what one might otherwise consider a sturdy, easy to ship, item.
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