An essential piece in the construction of a 13,000 TEU container vessel is the ship’s propeller. a. hartrodt was recently tasked with handling the delivery of a 68.4-ton piece from Hamburg to the Port of Busan in South Korea. 

The project logistics experts from a. hartrodt took over the heavy cargo at the berth in the Port of Hamburg, at the end of March. The manufacturer had arranged the pre-transport from Waren (Mueritz).

Gerd Illing, head of projects at a. hartrodt in Hamburg, describes the punctual delivery to the shipyard in South Korea as a particular challenge: “New ships have tightly scheduled production deadlines and don’t wait for us.”

The project department of a. hartrodt Hamburg with five employees faced and overcame the tense loading situation in the worldwide shipping industry with massive delays or blank sailings. “We have already shipped a first propeller from Hamburg to Busan in February. Also this time, we booked space on a container vessel for the breakbulk cargo at an early stage,” says Illing.

a. hartrodt enlists help of a floating crane

At the port of Hamburg, a floating crane loaded the propeller aboard the CMA CGM Antoine de Saint Exupery. This ensured horizontal load guidance and millimeter-precise steering of the cargo – and so the 9.60 by 9.60 by 2.10 meter propeller made of cast copper alloy floated onto the ocean-going vessel. Together with a 1.5-ton accessory box, the cargo was heaved on board and secured.

The ship is scheduled for arrival at the South Korean port of Busan at the end of April. Currently, the vessel is sailing in the Arabian Sea off India. “The heavy-lift cargo will first go ashore and then be loaded onto a barge from the shipyard,” Illing explains.