Transport from Hungary to Turkey via Bulgarian river port Russe December 2013

In December 2013 Unishipping International Ltd was nominated by a partner to participate in delivery of equipment for hydroelectric power plant which was with origin Hungary and final destination Turkey. Multimodal transport via Danube river was involved here taking in consideration the parameters of cargo - stator frames with unit dimensions 11.36 x 5.70 x 4.02m / 42.5t, total 4 pieces. Cargo has been delivered by trucks from factory in Hungary to river port Paks, loaded onto river barge to Ruse port in Bulgaria with further reloading in Ruse from barge onto trailers to final destination in Turkey. Unishipping was in charge for all operations in Hungary and Bulgaria. It was a challenging task due to fact that port of Paks in Hungary was the only workable port, but it is situated in the area of nuclear power plant without enough handling capacity for heavy cargo like ours and the only option for transshipment is direct one. Storage of cargo on quay in port and stay of mobile crane is absolutely impossible for more than one-two days. So we had to perform strict organization in order to avoid possible delay and a lot of additional expenses. But even this is not enough when you are dealing with such cargo. During the local trucking in Hungary one of the stator frames was not fixed properly in his wooden crate and has moved aside into the wooden crate and this piece was not anymore suitable for further transport before repairing. Shipper decided to repair the crate using the hired crane in port area but this would take at least 2 days. Due to fact that barge was in convoy and was waiting on quay, we shipped only 3 pieces and start looking for other suitable barge or river vessel which can load the remaining cargo after repairing. Thus, once repaired, cargo was waiting near the port, loaded on heavy trailer, in order to be removed again in port and shipped to Ruse. When a river vessel has been booked, we performed again direct loading from trailer onto ship. Finally all units has been delivered successfully to Ruse port and reloaded on trucks for their final destination in Turkey.