Heavy lifts put to sea on a voyage to Rotterdam

02.09.2003

In the Port Free Zone at the Port of Gdansk another unusual cargo handling operation was carried out that was preceded by complex assembly work provided by the Elblag-based company of Elzam-Konstal. The handled cargo comprises a machine designed for discharging coal that was assembled on the premises of the Port Free Zone from parts manufactured by Elzam-Konstal and other components imported from abroad. The Port Free Zone provides unique grounds for handling operations of this kind, as the commodities coming from abroad, in the course of handling do not require securing duty charges.

On August 29 and 30, this year, the loading operation was conducted of two assembled heavy lifts onto the barge. Loaded onto the board there were a 97-tonne tower of the machine and a 211-tonne horizontal arm. The work was performed by means of floating cranes owned by the Port of Gdansk Authority Co. (serviced by the company of PUPiM WUZ) and Gdansk Shipyard. At an earlier stage, in mid-July, this year, another part of this machine was shipped - a 480-tonne beam.

The port of destination for the heavy lifts is Rotterdam. After all its parts have been assembled the machine will have a capacity of discharging coal from ships at a rate of 3,000 tonnes per hour.

It is worthwhile bringing to mind that in the year 2001 in the Port Free Zone at the Port of Gdansk, an equally non-standard handling operation took place of three coal discharging cranes, 865 tonnes each. This operation was preceded by a complex assembly process of the cranes in the Port Free Zone - a truly international undertaking. The assembly work was provided by the company of Elzam-Konstal. The cranes were earmarked for a coal handling terminal at the port of Mai Liao, Taiwan.