A massive logistics feat unfolded as deugro Japan, working alongside deugro USA, successfully transported over 85,000 CBM of oversized and heavy-lift (OSHL) equipment for a major petrochemical project in Texas. This complex operation involved moving nearly 530 TEU and over 50 metric tons of airfreight from more than 20 global seaports and airports to the project site.
The cargo originated from 14 different countries, requiring extensive coordination to ensure seamless transportation to Port Arthur, Texas. From there, the equipment was moved inland via barge and truck. Acting as the project control tower, deugro Tokyo played a key role in managing cargo pick-up, vessel loading, and stowage at multiple ports worldwide. A total of ten heavy-lift vessels were either fully or partially chartered for the ocean voyages, facilitated through deugro’s Chartering department.
However, the logistical landscape was not without its challenges. Haruka Somura, General Manager at deugro Japan, highlighted one critical situation: “One of the full-charter vessels, which was booked for a shipment from Korea nearly one year prior to the shipment, missed the agreed laycan due to the effects of the Red Sea crisis. However, thanks to our strategic partnerships with the carriers, we were able to find and charter another heavy lift vessel with the required capacity one month prior to laycan. This enabled us to prevent significant project delays and extra costs for the client and the project owner.”
Once in Port Arthur, the majority of the components were directly transloaded onto deck barges. Among the most challenging pieces transported were a 540-metric-ton C2 splitter, measuring 68.60 x 9.76 x 9.97 meters, and a 375-metric-ton, 54-meter-long caustic tower. Given the limited availability of barges and several vessel arrivals occurring simultaneously, deugro Houston had to devise an efficient barge-turnaround plan to prevent port congestion.
“The extreme barge shortage in the market, combined with several vessels arriving at the same time at the discharge port, required us to develop a plan to reuse and efficiently turn around some of the hired barge assets,” said Gert Jensen, Senior Vice President, Operations at deugro USA. “This was particularly challenging and had to be meticulously designed since any delays caused, for instance, by weather or congestion, could have potentially delayed vessel operations with significant additional costs as a consequence.”
Ensuring safe and secure transportation of the oversized cargo to the Marine Offloading Facility (MOF) required advanced transport engineering. dteq Transport Engineering Solutions was brought in to assess barge structural integrity and implement necessary load-spreading adjustments. “Given the nature of the design of various cargo items, we had to analyze the structural integrity of the barge and locate all load spreading accordingly,” said Franklin Alvarez, Regional Director, Transport Engineering Americas at dteq.
With multiple vessels operating simultaneously, deugro’s team had to coordinate lift operations with barge roll-offs in a synchronized sequence. “We had a limited number of barges available to us and had to efficiently reuse them,” added Alvarez. “We had to time the lift operations of each item with the completion of the roll-off operations and return the specific barge on time for loading additional items.”
After reaching the MOF, the cargo was carefully offloaded using self-propelled modular transporters (SPMTs). Following 17 barge voyages, all international and domestic shipments were successfully delivered, marking the completion of this highly coordinated logistics operation.
“The overall project scope, with its considerable number of challenging OSHL cargo components, interfaces, vessel and barge voyages, overland trips, and transloading operations, in conjunction with the strict delivery sequences of the construction site, required meticulous preparation, proactive coordination, and closest communication between all parties involved,” said Jensen. “The full support of the client, project owner, and all subcontractors were key to the successful project delivery.”
