Best Logistics, as part of the Haeger & Schmidt Logistics group of companies, recently successfully operated the largest project in its 21-year history. For the construction of a chemical plant, currently one of the largest investments in Poland, the Szczecin-based heavy-lift project service provider took over the port handling in various Polish seaports and delivered the individual parts to the plant port.
One of the largest polypropylene plants in Europe is currently being built in Police, Poland, and is being supplied and erected on a turnkey basis by Hyundai Engineering Company, Korea. On behalf of DEUGRO Korea, Best Logistics was responsible for a section of the logistics supply for about a year. “We handled the project cargoes from the overseas ships directly into suitable barges or pontoons and brought them to the Azoty Police plant port,” Andreas Häfner, Managing Director of Best Logistics, outlines the assignment.
Speaking about the scale, he says: “Over the period of one year, a total of 26 heavy-lift vessels with 19,000 tons of cargo arrived at the seaports of Szczecin, Swinoujscie and Police destined for the construction site.” Best Logistics took all the packages directly from the seagoing vessel using RoRo special ships, pontoons and barges, without having to tranship them on land. “On average, we handled a heavy-lift vessel every 10 days and transported the project cargo, some of which was very challenging, about 20 to 30 km further by waterway,” Häfner summarized.
One of the challenges was the shallow diving depth of 3.50 m in the Police plant port. Thus, a wide variety of floating hulls, which are equipped with ballast systems, among other things, were used to move the sometimes oversized and heavy pieces of cargo. Among the highlights of the complex logistics, Häfner counts a splitter with a length of 95 m and a weight of 900 tons as well as five tank storage containers, each with a length of 65 m and a unit weight of 600 tons.