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City Union Completes Logan Project by Transporting Furnace to USA

[ July 27, 2017   //   ]

City Union Logistics, an XLProjects (XLP) member headquartered in Shanghai, was recently commissioned by client Otto Junker to transport a pushing furnace from a factory in Changshu, China to a job site in Russellville, KY.

The job was a colossal challenge. The overall dimension of this furnace had a length of 33m, Width of 12m and Height of 3m. The total weight of the furnace was 662 Tons. As per the transport condition around the factory and the job site at the terminal place, City Union agreed that it was impossible to execute rolling transportation in module type.

City Union consulted and communicated with the engineer and logistic teams, coming to a decision to synthesize each kind of situation and decide upon the optimal scheme. City Union had to take control over the transport cost and meet the delivery date whilst considering the support by the logistic situation and the road permits in China and the USA. City Union thus decided to disassemble the furnace and hire the professional packaging team to package those furnace parts according to the German standard, which would ensure the furnace parts had good performance after being transported a long distance.

The huge furnace was divided into 154 parts and based on the different features of those parts and the logistic situation, they adopted three different schemes to transport the furnace.

  • The small furnace parts were loaded in 33 40-inch containers. Those containers were shipped to the west coast of America and carried by trucks from Los Angeles to the nearest container yard, Nashville and then those containers were carried by trucks to the terminal job site. This door to door service, ensured City Union delivered the cargo within 30 days.
  • 24 medium furnace parts were loaded in 11 40-inch flat containers. Due to the huge dimension, City Union chose Savannah as the import port. After the cargo was stripped at the port, those flat containers were carried to the job site by special trucks. They delivered those 11 flat containers within 40 days from door to door.
  • As for the rest of the 8 big furnace parts which couldn’t be disassembled, they had to choose the bulk cargo ship to carry those big cargo.

The dimensions and weights of those big furnace parts:

12.4m X 5.2m X 3.6m    41 Ton   2 Parts
12.4m X 4.1m x 3.6m    32 Ton   6 Parts

Due to the shortages of bulk shipping, its irregular and long-term voyage could have missed the delivery date. Based on that they finally chose the container ship to carry those break bulks. They adopted the split hoisting at the loading and terminal port so that they could make sure the big furnace parts reached the job site. City Union delivered the 8 break bulk cases within 35 days from door to door.

For the disassembly and encasement of this cargo, City Union paved moisture-proof pads under the furnace parts. For avoiding the breaking of moisture-proof pads and damages of goods, they came up with a good idea to utilize a tennis ball to buffer the friction.

Due to the features of engineering project logistics, all the processes needed to observe the strict rules. City Union arranged the experienced and capable truck fleets and actively discussed with all the parties and decided the optimal scheme. City Union coordinated with the parties and with the cooperation of public security and the departments of municipal works. City Union successfully transferred those furnace parts on board to Russellville via the Port of Savannah.

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