Panalpina’s African team has helped facilitate the smooth transportation of four heat exchangers weighing 47,210 kg for a deep-water oil platform in Angola.
The heavyload was shipped via a Boeing 747-8F from Huntsville in the US to Luanda via Liege Airport within seven days last month.
Panalpina’s African Star service for transporting large shipments from the US to Angola came to the fore in shipping the payload.
All four heat exchangers had to be on the platform by 28 May to avoid significant production losses.
The two smaller heat exchangers (7,081 kg each) were ready first and were securely packed and shipped out on 7 May from Houston, Texas via Panalpina’s African Star air and ocean freight solution.
For the two larger exchangers (16,524 kg each), time was more critical because they were not completed and available for pick-up from the supplier facility until 19 May, with the same delivery deadline of 28 May.
To make this happen, Panalpina’s engineering team, along with the Atlas Air special loads team, continuously redesigned the shipping skid and pallet tie-down in the 10 days prior to ensure safe and compliant transport.
The morning of 19 May, Panalpina representatives were on-site at the supplier facility before sunrise to begin packaging the units. Late that evening after many discussions and changes, the trucks departed for Panalpina’s Huntsville air freight gateway.
“With only seven days to deliver such fragile and critical components, the trust the customer put in our team was immeasurable,” said Matthias Frey, global head of the Panalpina Charter Network.
