Major Mining Company Expands Relationship With Crane Worldwide Logistics for High-Priority Project

Disruption and risk have marred global logistics in past years. As the industry began to grapple with the risks that would become the pandemic and all it entailed, Crane Worldwide Logistics was contracted by a major mining company for project logistics shipments.

The plan was to execute logistics services for a large-scale project that would enable expansion of an existing mine.

The project included more than 170,000 revenue tons (RT) of materials sourced from all around the world. Significant planning was involved however flexibility and agility was required as supply chain disruptions had a great impact particularly when dealing with project cargo from China and Korea.

Shipping capacity became increasingly scarce and port congestion was at an all-time high. Chartering vessels for the oversized cargo was a requirement to pick up the majority of the cargo and seamless communication with our client was required throughout the project.

What Challenges Were Present?

Chartering vessels and building plans to move 170,000 R/T of freight was not a small feat. It was further complicated by several core pieces of equipment that would require additional care and planning beyond the typical project logistics move.

Crane Worldwide orchestrated the transport of goods and created in depth plans for loading. This was an exhaustive process for handling the project cargo over many months. Global preparations for the project team were key to complete the many moves that amounted to this project’s completion.

However, several challenges quickly impacted the original plans and led to a need for more resilience. These challenges included:

Foreign flag restrictions at the origin port that resulted in an immediate delay for expected berthing time. These restrictions were at the height of China’s Zero-COVID policy and impacted existing schedules.
Securing a new plan for managing consolidated loads from many suppliers in mainland China. That also included moving six oversized shipments, “cold boxes,” each weighing more than 175 tons, from a manufacturer’s private terminal via barge and coming alongside the ship for loading while accommodating for double banking restrictions.
Contacting potential barge operators, finding those not impacted by flag restrictions, while simultaneously evaluating all loading and lashing requirements to ensure the stability of barges, the chartered vessels and ensuring safe transport.
Adapting these “Plan B” steps due to additional disruptions that arose when a monsoon threatened to again delay loading.

How Crane Worldwide Logistics Delivered on Its Promises.

Despite the challenges, Crane Worldwide Logistics’ team was able to find barges, re-engineer the loading plans from barge to vessel, maintain compliance with all double-banking and loading requirements for the port, and enable a clear cost-avoidance strategy.

After finding the means of avoiding extra costs from the flag restrictions, delays at the port, and challenges in finding barge operators, Crane Worldwide then had to re-evaluate various scenarios and devise an alternate plan to avoid a monsoon that had manifested while the execution of the operation was already underway.

This involved having the barges take cover to ride out the storm. Still, Crane Worldwide succeeded in the complete loading of the chartered vessels with efficiency and speed improving the original plans to ensure successful operations.

Being flexible and adaptable to the operations environment is essential when carrying out project logistics movements particularly when out of scope challenges arise.

Our global project team, working side by side in partnership with our client, enabled seamless communication to ensure the optimum results were achieved.

The Result

Crane Worldwide Logistics strengthened an existing client relationship through an agile approach to handling logistics disruptions as they occurred as well as finding additional cost-avoidance opportunities. This included identifying core risks and creating a transportation strategy that could deliver ahead of schedule while also overcoming crucial barriers to the project shipments initial planning.
This resulted in:

Coordinating loads successfully from across 18 suppliers across southeast China.
Avoiding potential detention charges more than $1 million by adapting the strategy as disruptions occurred over time.
Discharging the project cargo at site on time and without additional cost from the unexpected events.
Continuing to navigate the needs of the clients as disruptions evolved over the following months and ensuring comprehensive and agile transportation management.