Feature, Freight News, Sea


AAL takes problem-solving approach to complex crane consignment

[ January 28, 2025   //   ]

Heavy lift carrier AAL Shipping (AAL) transported a 560-tonne crane body from Kobe, Japan to New Orleans on its regular Asia-Americas Trade Lane Service onboard the 31,000dwt AAL Kembla. The operation posed unique challenges due to the component’s size and complex load configuration.

The consignment included the crane body – 20.14m long, 15.5m wide and 19m high – as well as a 60-tonne crane boom and five large grab buckets, each exceeding 100 tonnes, all destined for marine solutions company Curtin Maritime.

In Kobe, a barge laden with the components arrived alongside the A-Class vessel for loading, with each unit’s position onboard carefully planned in line with the outreach of AAL Kembla’s 350-tonne capacity cranes. The cranes were deployed in tandem to provide a maximum payload of 700 tonnes, with two lifting points determined to load 302 tonnes and 258 tonnes respectively. 

Incoming adverse weather conditions forced the on-site AAL Engineering team to adjust the lifting plan, ensuring that the operations could safely be sped up to avoid delays to the loading sequence.

In New Orleans, the original plan was to discharge cargo using a floating crane onto the client’s crane barge. A change in requirements, however, meant that AAL Kembla’s heavy lift cranes were once again called upon to handle the heavy lifting, this time discharging the units onto a material barge.

 General manager of AAL Americas, Henrik Hansen, concluded: “This successful heavy lift cargo operation stands as a testament to AAL’s ability to stay flexible and harness its engineering expertise in overcoming complex logistical challenges. This shipment took a great deal of coordination between us and the client due to the size of the components and the requirements, with extensive planning from our commercial, engineering and operational teams at both the port of loading and discharge.

“Effective communication and flexibility from both sides played a huge role in executing this shipment flawlessly as it went through several different scenarios for loading and discharging, and at multiple stages of this project we had to pivot our plans and develop adjusted solutions. This level of commitment and adaptability combined with the regularity and capacity of our Asia-Americas Trade Route provides is why our customers repeatedly choose our services.”

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