PRESS RELEASE – DB Schenker has delivered almost 200 components for the world’s largest rail mounted vehicles with a total weight of 90,000 freight tonnes. They were transported by land and sea over a distance of over 2100 kilometers to BHP’s USD 3.6 billion South Flank project in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

Once assembled by the engineers of thyssenkrupp Mining Technologies, the fully autonomous stackers and reclaimer will each transport 20,000 tons of iron ore per hour in one of the world’s most extensive mining projects. In the mine, the stackers and reclaimer move on up to 112 wheels. Each machine measures up to 106 meters in length, 40 meters in height and weighs up to 2,800 metric tonnes. The buckets wheel amounts to more than 12 meters in diameter.

25 experts of DB Schenker’s Global Projects & Industry Solutions business unit in Perth planned and executed the engineered shipping and road transport solutions for more than two years. The parts were transported on three vessels 1,770 kilometers from the Australian Marine Complex in Henderson, Western Australia, to Port Hedland. From there, they were carried by specialized hydraulic heavy transport trailers and trucks on a 350-kilometer road trip to the mine site in the Pilbara desert. The convoy with the largest trailer combination at 120 meters passed 27 bridges and five rail crossings.

“We are proud that the world’s leading industry suppliers trust us with extraordinary project forwarding challenges like this one”, says Thorsten Meincke, Member of the Global Board of DB Schenker. “Our Global Projects & Industry Solutions team has once again proven their expertise to deliver reliably, safely and on time.”

Mega-sized modules

DB Schenker is currently also shipping mega-sized modules for the ore-handling plant and 23-kilometer overland conveyor system. Up until now, a total of 380,000 freight tonnes has been transported on eleven specialized heavy-lift vessels from several parts of the world to Australia. On its way to Port Hedland the load passes 7150 kilometers and, at times, a temperature difference of more than 60 degrees.

DB Schenker operates this supply chain under the DB Group CO2 emission targets. Environmentally friendly vessels are said to have enabled a CO2 emission footprint reduction of to-date 53 percent, or 15,632 tonnes compared to regular vessels.