The following case studies reflect some of the projects handled and successfully executed by the project team on the African continent and internationally.
Client: British American Tobacco Company
Project: Dismantling and Relocation of Plant from South Africa
To secure the tender, frequent visits had to be made to London. The scope included the dismantling, crating, storage and export of the entire plant to Nigeria. The dismantling and crating took 6 months to complete. It was then placed in storage for a period of 8 months and thereafter shipment to Nigeria was arranged.
The shipment constituted a mixture of containers – 20 and 40 foot, including open top and flat racks. A total of 1300 m³ (30%) of the cargo moved was classified as abnormal with the dimensions on the largest pieces being 12.00 x 2.40 x 3.10m and 11.84 x 2.81 x 3.70m.
Client: Paterson and Candy
Project: Water Rehabilitation Project in 5 States of Nigeria
The tonnage transported / shipped from 3 continents totalled 18000m³, with heavy lifts up to 35 tons. The nature of the cargo in the main suggested the utilisation of containers. However, items such as storage tanks and other mixers had to be shipped as break-bulk cargo. It is important to mention that in all instances, ships gear had to be used for off-loading since the Lagos Port facilities were out of order. We established a consolidation warehouse in Lagos from the point of distribution to the various sites/ locations throughout the country. In all instances, adherence to the agreed SOP was a priority and to achieve this, regular meetings between Management, Project Engineers and Freight Forwarding and Logistics Contractor took place.
Client: Randgold Resources
Project: Transport of 12000m³ of water piping to Morila Gold Mine in Mali.
The scope of this project included the Management, Planning and Co-ordination of the total Freight and Logistics requirement from Supplier in Cape Town to Mine Site in Mali. Goods were procured on an Ex-Works term basis and as such the responsibility of crating formed part of the logistic scope. The piping was shipped over a 6 month period utilising 7 charter vessels from Cape Town to Morila Gold Mine site in Mali, via the port of Dakar in Senegal from where it was road transported.
Client: Randgold Resources
Project: Construction of Loulo Mine Situated In Mali, West Africa
The Freight Forwarding and Logistics scope included the management and planning of the entire logistical requirements and extended to foodstuffs, luxuries and supplies for the project personnel.
Sourcing of plant, equipment and raw material was done internationally and required the coordination of both conventional and unconventional cargo. Apart from employing the service of regular containerised vessels, we had to negotiate with owners of bulk carriers as well as charter companies.
Numerous charter agreements were negotiated, not only for sea but also for airfreight. It took 3 months of intensive planning and route surveying before movement could take place.
A total of 57000 tons of cargo from all over the globe was moved to the remote site in Mali. This included a number of abnormal pieces such as the two ball mills. The mill shells measured 5.5m in diameter and 8m in length, and weighed 103 tons each. Transported from Duncanville in Vereeniging and shipped via the ports of Richards Bay, South Africa to Dakar, Senegal, these were transported 1000km west to the Loulo Mine site in Mali.
As a result of the successful execution of the project over a 2 year period, a further phase was awarded to the project team.
Client: Murray & Roberts Construction
Project: Plant Relocation to Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria
Nigeria
Two projects were executed simultaneously by the client in Nigeria. The first was the construction of the USA Embassy in Abuja and the second was the construction of the Shell Camp in the Delta Region. The scope was to ensure that both plant and equipment arrived at the stipulated destination(s) in tact; and so too, the consumables and raw material required to complete the construction of all facilities.
Despite the fact that both projects had been exempted from any statutory payments, endless negotiation had to be entered into every time a shipment had to be cleared. The greatest challenge was the negotiation with the Nigerian customs and port authorities. It is estimated that we shipped a total of 33 000m³ of cargo and successfully facilitated the return of 27 000m³ to South Africa.
Equatorial Guinea
In addition to being responsible for the entire Freight Forwarding and Logistics from South Africa to the Island of Malabo in Equatorial Guinea, the successful tenderer also had to arrange accommodation and transport for all construction site employees for the duration of their stay on the Island. Approximately 18000m³ of plant and equipment were moved from Johannesburg to Malabo.
Due to the draft constraints in the Malabo Port, transfer of almost 90% of the cargo was done at anchorage using barges to facilitate transportation to the shore.
A greater challenge was the completion of all documentation in an effort to ensure the problem free return of both plant and equipment to South Africa. Locally, care had to be taken in ensuring that export was done under customs supervision with every single item being registered for re-importation. As a result of the constraints, only charter vessels were utilized - both for the original export as well as the subsequent return of the cargo. In total, 7 vessels were chartered.
Client: Amalgamated Beverages
Project: Relocation of Bottling Plants to Ghana, Angola, Kenya
Apart from the management and planning of the individual projects, an important aspect was the assistance needed with the movement of parts from the established plants to fabricators throughout the country, as well as the rigging requirements at the site. In the main, the Bottle Washers were fabricated at the plant since this made commercial sense and thereafter, it was the responsibility of the Freight Forwarder to arrange the rigging out of and onto the appropriate low bed trailer. It must be born in mind that the bottle washers’ mass range between 85 to 100 tons. The real challenge was always at the port of arrival and at the various sites in the city/country of destination. The initial and continuous planning has been intensive and in all instances the said objectives were achieved. The total cubic meters shipped equalled 25 000, of which 8000 originated from Europe with the total process being managed locally.
Client: MNet
Project: Big Brother Nigeria
MNet awarded the logistics contract to forward broadcasting equipment plus one mobile studio to Lagos (Nigeria) for the Big Brother Nigeria show.to the project team.
The scope of work included the following; -
- Charter of an Illusion 76 aircraft
- Packing and crating of all equipment.
- Registration and inspection with South African Customs for re-importation.
- Loading and handling of containers at both sites (Johannesburg and Lagos.)
- Rigging of containers in and out of aircraft.
- Registration for temporary import with the Nigerian authorities.
- Nigerian Customs clearance and delivery.
Late December 2005 the projects team processed an urgent application to Nigerian Authorities for temporary importation permit. This took approximately 6 weeks for the processing and issuance of the permit.
The broadcasting equipment which was valued at US$ 16.7 million had to be packed and loaded into 1 x 6m GP and 1 x12m H.C. container. Due to the nature of the equipment each piece was individually wrapped and packed into heavy duty cartons with polystyrene chips to reduce the risk of damage.
On Saturday 14th January 2006 the containers were collected from MNet studios in Randburg and airfreighted via Johannesburg International Airport on an IL 76. Special riggers were employed to load the 2 containers as there was a 4 cm clearance between the top on the containers and the tail of the aircraft. The rigging crew travelled on the IL76 to Lagos, to discharge the aircraft.
On completion of the discharge the crew returned to Johannesburg late on Sunday night the 15th January 2006. The good were delivered to Multichoice Nigeria on 18th January 2006.
Client: IST Energy, a division of IST Holdings (Pty) Ltd
Project: Shipment of Electricity Generation Plant from USA to SA
IST Energy in partnership with General Electric International awarded the Eskom “Kendal Black Start Facility” (KBSF) project to the project team in May 2006.
In addition to the management, planning and coordination of the project, it was required that the project manager spend time at the site in the USA, advising and reaching consensus with the site engineers on the extent that each unit should and could be dismantled. The purpose of the exercise was to achieve the most cost-effective shipment configuration. This was the most challenging part of the project bearing in mind the fact that the cargo consisted of, amongst others, Gas Turbines, Rotors, Exhausts, Inlet Filter Housing, Structural Steel, Walkways, Silencer Panels/Frames and Stackers etc.
While the greater majority of the cargo originated from Long Beach, California, sourcing was also done from other USA States as well as Europe. Critical to the success of the entire project was the movement of the 2 abnormal units. An 85 ton Turbine (dims 11.5 x 3.4 x4.4m) and a 67 ton generator module (dims 8 x 3.4 x 4.4m) Cost became a major factor as shipping from the West Coast of the USA is extremely expensive and the voyage times in all respects are long. As freight forwarder and logistics service provider, one is expected to find solutions to all these challenges. Instead of shipping all cargo from Long Beach, it was decided to road haul the abnormal pieces 2500km to Atlanta (which was achieved in 4 working days) from where they were shipped to Durban for final delivery to Kendal Power Station.
The result was a 30% reduction in the logistics cost. Due to the time constraints on this project, a large amount of cargo was air-freighted. On completion a total of 200 airfreight consignments had been forwarded, customs cleared and delivered to the Kendal site with 92% completed within the stipulated KPI’s. A total of 5500 tons (mass) had been moved.
Client: Rhodium Reefs Limited
Project: Eastern Platinum
In July 2007, K’Enyuka Project Managers awarded the project team a ‘turnkey’ project Logistics contract to execute the shipment of 6 x second hand Ball Mills ex Cebu (Philippines) and Parts / Accessories ex Perth & Darwin (Australia), for and on behalf of Rhodium Reefs / Barplats.
Our scope included application to ITAC for a Stage Consignment Ruling, application to the Department of Trade and Industries for a Second Hand Import Permit as well as registration with SARS of Rhodium Reefs Limited as an importer. Additionally ‘pre-shipment’ inspections were to be arranged (Beauport Maritime) as well as a ‘marine survey’ (Del Pan Marine & Cargo Surveyors) confirming satisfactory stowage.
Given that both Darwin and Cebu are remote destinations with limited shipping options, we had to source a vessel that could accommodate all cargo (2 ports of loading) and be able to berth in drafts lower than 8m.
Plant statistics were as follows:
Cebu, Philippines: 100 pieces breakbulk & containers, 3662 cbm, 1442 tons
*80% cargo abnormal (bet. 3 & 5m wide)
Darwin, Australia: 5 pieces breakbulk & containers, 244cbm, 101 tons
*+4m high / +3m wide
Perth, Australia: 1 container
Cargo value: R150m
Logistics spend: R11m
The best shipping option was to charter a vessel (3500 tons) load Darwin cargo in Singapore and thereafter proceed to Cebu to load remaining cargo or vice versa. The Perth cargo was shipped via conventional shipping line service.
The equipment had to be loaded on a 5000 ton barge from Tayud in Consolacion, approx. 10kms from the Cebu International Port (CIP). Loading out of CIP proved to be a challenge at time of loading due to adverse weather conditions (heavy rains & strong winds) that ravaged throughout the Pacific, restricting us to work on barge to ship transfer during daylight hours only.
