By Karen E. Thuermer, AJOTIn many ways, a recent shipment for a French transformer manufacturer exemplifies Albacor Shipping’s daily work load. Here a transformer was shipped from France on a Spliethoff vessel to Houston. There the transformer was offloaded directly from the vessel to a rail car, then transported to Tempe, AZ, where it was offloaded from the rail, lifted upright and placed on the foundation. “The biggest challenge associated with the move was laying the transformer down on the rail car then lifting it up again in the right position at the rail site, then trans fitting it to the foundation,” recalls Willy Hoffmann, senior vice president of Albacor Shipping, the heavy lift freight forwarding company headquartered in Mahwah, NJ. According to Hoffmann, the November move took 14 days from Houston to the rail siting in Tempe, then another five to six days to get it off the rail and to the final job site and place it on the foundation. Because the customer was very nervous about the shipment, Albacor attached its own solar powered GPS system to the transformer. This way parties involved would know the exact location of the shipment and the rail car every moment during the 14-day move. Moving such heavy, large and costly cargoes such as transformers is everyday business for Albacor. The company specializes in the handling and logistics of industrial and machinery projects. In fact, Hoffmann emphasizes, Albacor is one of the leading freight forwarders in North America that handles transformers and generators. Business has been good for Albacor given the fact that companies within the energy sector were little impacted by the recent global recession. “The energy sector continues to go strong, especially with the demand of power transformer generators, wind farm equipment and solar power,” he says. “Other industries experienced a slow down, but we have seen an upswing already for this year and believe it will be back to normal in 2012.” Global Expansion To capitalize on opportunities worldwide, Albacor Shipping has been expanding its reach worldwide. In October 2010, Albacor partnered with Westfracht Germany to open a sales office in Mongolia. The reason Albacor decided to expand to Mongolia is that market is increasingly important due to its wealth of natural resources. “Mongolia has gold, coal, copper, and just recently discovered oil,” Hoffmann says. “It will be a huge market, especially in the mining industry.” Large companies will be deploying to Mongolia to open new mines and explore the country for opportunities. Already some Canadian, American, and Australian companies have a presence in Mongolia. “But there are more and more to come,” he says. “They will import cranes, heavy infrastructure equipment – you name it, they need it. They are just now scratching the surface of a huge, powerful market.” But Mongolia lacks in good infrastructure, and adding to that challenge, the country is land-locked. Shipments must enter via Russia or China. Hoffmann claims Albacor is up to the job since his company has nine offices in Russia and Westfracht has a presence in China. “If equipment comes from Europe, it will be shipped through Russia,” Hoffmann says. “If it comes from North America, it will be shipped through China. We can cover transportation via both countries.” A particular advantage is the fact Albacor and Westfracht have employed agent BCL Mongolia, a well known Mongolian freight forwarder located in Ulaanbaatar. There they operate their own container terminal. “Few companies have their own container terminals in this part of the world,” Hoffmann says.