Premium project heavy lift carrier AAL Shipping  transported a 560-tonne crane body from Kobe, Japan to New Orleans, USA along its regular Asia – Americas Trade Lane Service onboard the 31,000 dwt heavy lift vessel, AAL Kembla. The operation posed unique challenges due to the component’s immense size and complex load configuration, with precise engineering and time-saving adjustments required to safely execute the shipment.

In total, the consignment included the crane body — measuring 20.14 m in length, 15.5 m in width, and 19 m in height — as well as a 60-tonne crane boom and five large grab buckets, each exceeding 100 tonnes, all destined for USA-based marine solutions company Curtin Maritime.

In Kobe, a barge laden with the components arrived alongside the A-Class vessel for loading, with each unit’s position onboard carefully planned in accordance with the outreach of AAL Kembla’s 350-tonne capacity cranes. The cranes were deployed in tandem to provide a maximum payload of 700 tonnes, with two lifting points determined to load 302 tonnes and 258 tonnes respectively.

Incoming adverse weather conditions prompted the on-site AAL Engineering team to adjust the lifting plan, ensuring that the operations could safely be sped up to avoid delays to the loading sequence. “Our team’s swift response in modifying the lifting plan was critical to avoiding delays and maintaining safety standards,” explained Nicola Pacifico, Head of Transport Engineering at AAL. “This level of flexibility in our operations ensured we were able to deliver our client commitments and stick to the schedule of our Asia-Americas Trade Route, arriving in New Orleans towards the end of December 2024.”

In New Orleans, the original plan was to discharge cargo using a floating crane onto the client’s crane barge. A change in requirements, however, meant that AAL Kembla’s heavy lift cranes were once again called upon to handle the heavy lifting, this time discharging the units onto a material barge.

“Any cargo operations involving loading or discharge onto barges is very tricky – made even more complex due to the sheer size and weight of the components involved. Multiple stability simulations were conducted to ensure that each stage of the operation would proceed within established safety limits, despite the challenging weight distribution. This resulted in careful planning of the discharge sequence and the position of other cargoes to ensure that there was sufficient reserve stability for each heavy lift operation,” Pacifico added.

Henrik Hansen, General Manager of AAL Americas, concluded: “This successful heavy lift cargo operation stands as a testament to AAL’s ability to stay flexible and harness its engineering expertise in overcoming complex logistical challenges. This shipment took a great deal of coordination between us and the client due to the size of the components and the requirements, with extensive planning from our commercial, engineering and operational teams at both the port of loading and discharge.

“Effective communication and flexibility from both sides played a huge role in executing this shipment flawlessly as it went through several different scenarios for loading and discharging, and at multiple stages of this project we had to pivot our plans and develop adjusted solutions. This level of commitment and adaptability combined with the regularity and capacity of our Asia-Americas Trade Route provides is why our customers repeatedly choose our services.”