Spliethoff Fagelgracht delivers wind turbines blades to Duluth

The Spliethoff Fagelgracht has delivered a shipment of nine wind turbine blades, measuring 80 metres in length, to the Port of Duluth-Superior, in the midwestern United States.

The Spliethoff Fagelgracht is a general cargo ship, built in 2011, which sails under the flag of the Netherlands. With a length of 137 metres and a breadth of 19 metres, the ship has a gross tonnage of 8,620 metric tonnes. The vessel arrived in the Minnesotan port on 7 November 2022.

These blades maintain the current record of the longest blades ever transported through the Port of Duluth-Superior. Duluth Cargo Connect handled the ship-to-truck transfer of the wind turbine blades with its specialised mobile cranes. The wind turbine blades are destined for a wind turbine installation in Alberta, Canada. They will therefore travel another 2,250 kilometres, approximately.

This is not, however, unusual, as the Port of Duluth-Superior is North America’s furthest inland seaport. Additionally, Duluth features the best road and rail clearances to and from North America’s heartland for dimensional cargo. For instance, 130-ton industrial tanks also transited through Duluth on their way to Alberta on 2 November 2022. In the port, they were transferred from barge to truck for transport.