Month: June 2017

AAL beat off intense competition from the sector’s leading carriers, to win the prestigious ‘Best Shipping Line Project Cargo’ award at the high profile AFLAS Awards in Singapore last night (29.6.17) – the fourth consecutive year AAL has won in this category.

Felix Schoeller commented, after collecting the award on AAL’s behalf, ‘We’d like to thank Asia Cargo News and the AFLAS Committee for nominating AAL once again in this all important Project Cargo Shipping category and we are immensely proud to have gone on to win the award for a fourth consecutive year. Even though AAL has expanded its project shipping capability to offer global coverage, Asia is still fundamental to ours and our customers’ operations and this important award tonight is testament to the hard work of everyone in our organisation on land and sea.’

The award was voted for by over 15,000 readers of ‘Asia Cargo News’ – shipping professionals, EPCs and project owners from across the world. This is an incredible achievement and one we should all be proud of – especially considering how hotly contested the award itself was this year, with other nominees including: Rickmers, Intermarine, Chipolbrok, Spliethoff, D-Ships and BigLift.

AAL DELIVERS 13 GIANT HAUL TRUCKS FOR SIBERIAN MINING PROJECT

AAL has successfully completed the shipment of 13 enormous haulage trucks (170mt each) from Laem Chabang Port in Thailand to the Port of Nakhodka in southeast Russia. The shipment was booked by our Brisbane office and operated by the Tramp & Projects team.

These Komatsu 830E ultra-class haul truck units – each over 14m in length, weighing 170mt and featuring an immense 2,360hp+ diesel powertrain – were transported on the 19,000dwt S-Class AAL Dampier, on behalf of 2016’s ‘International Freight Forwarder of the Year’, Freightplus. The trucks will be employed at a major Siberian mining project and are especially designed for off-road use in high-production mining and heavy-duty construction environments.

Namir Khanbabi commented: “We were delighted to partner with such as renowned freight forwarder as Freightplus and to have successfully completed the delivery of this important cargo ahead of schedule. The crane capacity of our S-Class fleet came into its own, giving Freightplus the assurance that each 170mt truck could be lifted, stowed and discharged at Nakhodka terminal without any reach issues. There was great communication between our two teams throughout the operation, supported by the expertise and diligence of the ship’s crew and the technical knowledge of our in-house engineering experts, drawing on their experience of working on over-sized and specialist cargo shipments for the mining sector.”

John Gleeson, CEO at Freightplus, added, ‘We came to AAL Shipping with very specific needs, in relation to stowage, crane capacity and reach, vessel length and draft, deck strength, schedule and budget and they tailored a solution for us that ticked every box. Being a regular user of AAL’s services in the Asia-Pacific region, we knew their very competent and dedicated team could be trusted to deliver as promised and that’s exactly what they did. They performed like a well-oiled machine and exceeded our expectations, in every respect.”

Watch the YOUTUBE video of this awesome shipmment here!

AAL has just completed its intense 9-month project shipment for LPL Projects + Logistics GmbH, to transport 194,561 freight tons of HRSG modules and related accessories (architectural steel and other components) from Ulsan and Penglai to the Egyptian ports of Sokhna and Adabiyah – cargo destined for the country’s largest-ever power generation project, the Siemens’ Megaproject.

The cargo comprised 384 HRSG modules and 45,000 freight tons of accessories, transported on 17 sailings between South Korea, China and Egypt between August 2016 and May 2017. The modules will be used at the Beni Suef and New Capital Power Plants, two thirds of the biggest gas-fired combined-cycle power station in the world and one that will generate 14.4 GW – a boost of 45 percent to Egypt’s power capacity.

Namir Khanbabi commented, ‘To have been involved in the Middle East’s most high profile energy project was a great honour and to deliver on schedule and without incident is testament to the sustained efforts of our sea and land-based teams. We were awarded the project by LPL in the Summer of 2016 and started almost immediately, quickly deploying four of our 31,000dwt A-Class vessels, dedicated to carrying-out the monthly and sometimes fortnightly sailings required into the Red Sea. With their 700mt combined heavy-lift capability and market leading intake, they performed incredibly well and reinforce our strategy of employing larger tonnage on tramp and projects operations where we can offer customers economies of scale on every sailing.’

Marc Willim added, ‘LPL were incredibly professional to work with and the communication between us was excellent and needed to be, considering the strict project timing, sailings intensity and overall importance of this multi-billion-dollar project to all stakeholders. The flexible ‘mega-size’ mpp tonnage we deployed, the technical knowledge of our in-house teams and over 20 years’ experience of working on energy projects, enabled us to deliver the capacity, schedule integrity and cargo handling required.’

Angelika Roos, LPL Project Director Megaproject Egypt, concluded, ‘Working with AAL was very professional. They always made an effort to find solutions when needed. It is easy to say that the carrier performance was perfect if everything goes well, but you really can only judge the performance of your partner if you are facing challenges. Here we have to say that everything worked out good. The communication between AAL and LPL was very good. We worked together as a team.’

Well done to all the AAL Team involved!