VIDEO: Terex charters vessel to ship crushers and screeners to Australia

Organised in conjunction with DHL Global Forwarding’s Industrial Projects division, it is described as a “mammoth, first of its kind practice for Terex” and a solution to logistical and supply chain delays.

Loading in progress before a range of Powescreen, Terex Ecotec and Finlay products left the United Kingdom for Australia. (Photo: Terex)

Claire Hamilton, category director – metal fabrications and logistics, Terex Supply Management and Transport, takes up the story.

“Towards the end of last year, our RORO (roll-on/roll-off) capacity to Australia was suspended due to port congestion, backlog due to Covid and increased global demand,” said Claire.

“Vessels were overbooked and backlog was not reducing. While we were provided with an allocation of slots, this did not meet the demand for our products.

“We decided to research alternative options for getting our equipment to our Australian customers, which was a huge undertaking.

“Our equipment varies in size and weight and not only is lifting them on, and off vessels difficult, safety of doing so is always our top priority. After exploring various options, we found a solution that enabled our machines to be tracked and secured onto a platform, which would be lifted by cranes and lowered into the hull of the ship.”

Before loading, the Terex sourcing and supply team worked with various stakeholders—including safety, engineering, logistics, operations teams within Terex, as well as external transport and shipping providers—with biweekly meetings to plan every detail.

Specific engineering information was provided for each machine, and dates agreed among all parties for getting machines to port. In total, 30 Terex machines weighing 1,092 mt (5,012cbm) were delivered to the Port of Southampton, where it took eight days to load them to the vessel.

Claire added: “From the planning stages right through to the enormous operation of loading our equipment onto the vessel, all stakeholders worked proactively to ensure that our 30 machines were loaded safely to the vessel with no incidents or accidents. It was a huge undertaking, a constant collaboration between internal and external parties, working as a team, was a key contributor to success.”

The machines are expected to arrive in Australia early next month.