Organised in conjunction with DHL Global Forwarding鈥檚 Industrial Projects division, it is described as a 鈥渕ammoth, first of its kind practice for Terex鈥� and a solution to logistical and supply chain delays.

Loading in progress before a range of Powescreen, Terex Ecotec and Finlay products left the United Kingdom for Australia. (Photo: Terex)

Claire Hamilton, category director 鈥� metal fabrications and logistics, Terex Supply Management and Transport, takes up the story.

鈥淭owards the end of last year, our RORO (roll-on/roll-off) capacity to Australia was suspended due to port congestion, backlog due to Covid and increased global demand,鈥� said Claire.

鈥淰essels were overbooked and backlog was not reducing. While we were provided with an allocation of slots, this did not meet the demand for our products.

鈥淲e decided to research alternative options for getting our equipment to our Australian customers, which was a huge undertaking.

鈥淥ur equipment varies in size and weight and not only is lifting them on, and off vessels difficult, safety of doing so is always our top priority. After exploring various options, we found a solution that enabled our machines to be tracked and secured onto a platform, which would be lifted by cranes and lowered into the hull of the ship.鈥�

Before loading, the Terex sourcing and supply team worked with various stakeholders鈥攊ncluding safety, engineering, logistics, operations teams within Terex, as well as external transport and shipping providers鈥攚ith biweekly meetings to plan every detail.

Specific engineering information was provided for each machine, and dates agreed among all parties for getting machines to port. In total, 30 Terex machines weighing 1,092 mt (5,012cbm) were delivered to the Port of Southampton, where it took eight days to load them to the vessel.

Claire added: 鈥淔rom the planning stages right through to the enormous operation of loading our equipment onto the vessel, all stakeholders worked proactively to ensure that our 30 machines were loaded safely to the vessel with no incidents or accidents. It was a huge undertaking, a constant collaboration between internal and external parties, working as a team, was a key contributor to success.鈥�

The machines are expected to arrive in Australia early next month.