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deugro, the Frankfurt based project freight forwarder, has completed the delivery of 1,235 water pipes and associated equipment to a remote construction site in Peru’s Cusco Province, in a logistics operation that spanned two ocean voyages from China, 172 overland truck rotations, and a 1,230 kilometer inland haul to secure drinking water production for the city of Cusco for the next three decades.
The shipment, totaling more than 7,325 cubic meters in volume, was transported on two vessels from the Port of Lianyungang in China to the Port of Callao in Peru. It consisted of six meter long pipes with diameters of 80 and 90 centimeters and individual weights exceeding 1.6 and 2.0 metric tons, along with more than 200 pallets and over 50 wooden boxes. Once assembled, the pipes will form a pipeline stretching more than 7.4 kilometers, serving a water production expansion across six districts.
From Quayside to Storage Yard
At Callao, the cargo was discharged directly from the vessels onto trailers using onboard cranes and moved to a 3,500 square meter intermediate storage area organized by the deugro Peru team near the port. To avoid delays, the forwarder arranged customs brokerage ahead of each vessel’s arrival through advance clearance declarations, a step that allowed the transition from port discharge to inland preparation to proceed without interruption.
At the storage yard, local specialists inspected each cargo unit and prepared it for safe onward transport, including loading and securing items onto trailers for the long road journey ahead.
172 Truck Rotations Across 1,230 Kilometers
The overland leg presented the operation’s defining challenge. The construction site in the Cusco Oropesa area lies nearly 1,230 kilometers from the port, and each one way trip required approximately three days of transit including mandatory rest periods for drivers.
deugro deployed a rotating fleet of trucks using various trailer configurations, moving between 10 and 20 transport units per day. A core team of nearly 20 people, including project managers, health safety and environment supervisors, trucking coordinators, customs brokerage experts, and surveyors, kept the rotation running in sequence with the construction site’s delivery schedule.
“One of the biggest challenges was the sheer volume of components that had to be managed,” said Sarina Yance, Sales and Business Development Manager at deugro Peru. She noted that all activities had to be aligned simultaneously with equipment and personnel availability, site delivery sequences, the project schedule, the budget, and safety regulations. That effort included developing loading and load securing plans, method statements, and coordinating truck and trailer units to match predefined delivery windows.
Yance added that the project required close communication with all stakeholders and regular status updates to allow timely responses to scheduling or location changes at short notice.
On Schedule, On Budget
Roberto Rios de Azambuja, Branch Manager at deugro Peru, said the combination of precise timing, close coordination with the construction site and all partners, and proactive project management meant all cargo units arrived safely, on schedule, and within budget. The approach also minimized the total number of overland trips required and reduced storage costs at the intermediate yard.
The Cusco water supply project highlights the growing demand for complex inland logistics in South America’s infrastructure sector, where remote construction sites, long overland distances, and the need for exact delivery sequencing test the capabilities of project cargo specialists. For forwarders, such operations underscore the commercial importance of maintaining local teams, pre positioned storage capacity, and advance customs planning in regions where port to site distances can exceed 1,000 kilometers.
