Hansa Heavy Lift executive sees upturn in project cargo market

The project cargo market is beginning to rebound, according to Joerg Roehl, chief commercial officer and managing director of Hamburg, Germany-based Hansa Heavy Lift GmbH.

“We are positive about development in our sector, as well as the results,” Roehl told the American Journal of Transportation. “We have seen an improvement in 2014 already, which is ongoing, and even a slight recovery on the freight rate levels. Certainly, those still need to develop even further, and this we will see happening in 2015.” Thus, moves such as the recent discharge at the Port of New Orleans of Indian-made reactors as many as 184 feet long and weighing as many as 830 metric tons can be anticipated to be increasingly commonplace in the coming year. “The oil and gas sector is a key market for us,” Roehl said. “The trend toward increasingly large modules, reactors and platforms means that customers are looking for a partner with a solid safety record and sound engineering experience, as well as vessels and equipment which can deal with that size of shipment.” Roehl noted that Hansa’s P2-1400 class vessels are equipped with cranes with a combined lifting capacity of more than 1,000 tons to handle this sort of shipment. “China and Asia in general is an important market with further growth potential,” Roehl said. “We also see potential in areas like Russia, India, Australia and Brazil.” To capitalize upon these geographic trends, Hansa works with an exclusive agent in India and, in early 2014, opened an office in the Western Australia city of Perth, augmenting company offices already in place in Houston and Singapore, plus additional agent offices in other European and Asian countries. “We want to strengthen Hansa Heavy Lift and continue growing,” Roehl said. “We also opened an office in São Paulo at the beginning of the year, supported by a new agent, Platetrade, based in Buenos Aires, to cover Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. “We are committed to developing a strong network of professionals with industry-specific knowledge and solid local connections, and we are proud to have experienced partners onboard,” he continued. Roehl said his firm’s contingent of 22 modern vessels is critical to success. “Our young fleet of vessels offers flexible, maximum capacity and has state-of-the-art lifting equipment,” he said. “We can operate quickly and safely independent of the port infrastructure thanks to our onboard cranes. These have a combined capacity up to 1,400 tons and an outreach of up to 30 meters [98 feet], which enables us to load cargo units weighing up to 700 tons and measuring up to 82 meters [269 feet] long under deck and on deck.” Roehl said adjustable tweendecks, movable to four different heights, guarantee a maximum intake of cargo. Hansa’s in-house team of experts ensure safe loading and maximum intake, as well as safe and accurate sea fastening of cargo, according to Roehl. The company has three vessels that are compliant with the Offshore Vessel Inspection Database, or OVID, a system which records all inspections for oil companies’ reference, he said, adding that the youngness of the Hansa fleet, at an average age of 4 years, also is important in doing business with oil and gas companies and related entities. Furthermore, Roehl said, all Hansa vessels are built to the highest ice class of E3, equivalent to Finnish-Swedish 1A, so they can transit sea routes with an ice thickness of as much a 1 meter [3.3 feet], and they have “bubble” devices in the ballast water tanks that stop water from freezing inside. Hansa undertook the Northern Sea Route five times with its vessels last year, he added. The early August discharge of the two reactors from the HHL Richards Bay at the Port of New Orleans is indicative of the kind of big moves Hansa has been undertaking. The cargo included one reactor weighing 830 metric tons with a length of 128 feet and another with a weight of 405 metric tons and a length of 184 feet. Both reactors were delivered by barge and loaded waterside in Mumbai aboard one of Hansa’s P2 series vessels, equipped with two cranes having a combined lifting capacity of 1,400 metric tons. Heiner Heise, cargo superintendent at Hansa Heavy Lift, explained that the move required some complex maneuvering. “Due to the length of the [longer] reactor at 56 meters, it was not possible to load the piece parallel,” Heise said. “The solution to the operation was to swing the smallest crane away to its maximum outreach. The crane with the lifting capacity of 700 metric tons was topping and swinging first, so that the reactor could pass the second crane. The other crane needed to follow this line. Finally, the piece was over the hold and kept parallel while being lowered into the hold.” While loading the heaviest piece of 830 metric tons, there was only a 4-inch clearance on each side of the beam underneath the cargo, so the piece had to be lifted straight up, according to Heise. Heavy load platforms were placed under each saddle to distribute the weight. Roehl commented, “We have the in-house engineering expertise to deal with the increasingly larger cargos that our customers present to us. Our very capable ships and equipment, as well as the expertise of the crew, enabled us to successfully tackle this challenging move.”