JAS Forwarding (Scandinavia) AB has arranged for its customer Dynawind AB, a new huge transportation of windmills. The windmill parts are manufactured in Finland; a charter vessel is the best and most cost effective way of transporting the cargo, because of the variation in size and weight between each shipment.
On 14th February 2008 a vessel was loaded in the Lovisa port (Finland) with 2 nacelles (each one 14,0 meters long x 4,0 meters wide x 5,0 meters high and 127 metric tons) plus 2 hubs (each one 4,80 meters in diameter and about 5,0 meters in height, for a weight of 27 metric tons each).
JAS Forwarding undertook the responsibility to move the cargo from the factory, to load the cargo on board the vessel and to properly secure the cargo in the ships hold. "A long day", said Johan Bjorklund, MD of JAS Forwarding in Sweden, and responsible for the complete planning and scope of work.
Work started at 06:30 in the morning and was finally completed at 20:00 hours of the same day. All work was done to perfection by the various sub-contractors despite the cold winter of Scandinavia (about -18°C).
The vessel had to drop anchor twice during the voyage to Sweden in order to protect the cargo from damages due to rough weather. In Sweden, the discharge operation was under very, very difficult circumstances. The port could discharge the cargo as normal, but the roads outside the port were not strong enough to bear the weight of cargo and transport vehicle (about 190 metric tons). "We were forced to find solutions" says Johan Bjorklund.
JAS was given permission to use a road close to a building site, next to an established refinery which closed down part of their activities in order to facilitate the cargo transit. By their goodwill and acceptance we were given the chance to discharge the vessel; we moved the stevedores, cranes and special hydraulic trailers into this facility. Some changes had to be applied to the quay we were assigned: we had to strengthen the quay for the lifting pressure. Afterwards, we could safely offload the cargo straight onto trailers, to start the last leg of the transport ex quay to the windmill building site.
Once again, JAS Forwarding lived up to the expectations of its customer to find solutions to handle cargo in a cost-effective, safe and quick fashion. "We are proud to have been awarded the job and to be able to work hand in hand with our customer" says Johan Bjorklund.