Machine Shipping by Barge

Sennebogen has successfully loaded 8 large machines onto a barge to transport them by water from Straubing, Germany, via Antwerp, Belgium, to Charleston, South Carolina. The machine transport was carried out in close cooperation with the heavy haul company Karl-Groß from Regensburg, which has extensive experience in the field of heavy load transportation. The use of barges brings considerable advantages in terms of sustainability and costs.

Loading the machines, including the Sennebogen 855 and 870 models in crawler and mobile versions, presented a logistical challenge. With operating weights of between 70 and 105 t, loading them onto the barge was a complex undertaking that required special measures.

“As the machines could not be lifted completely, we had to dismantle the counterweights on site and reassemble them after loading. It was also necessary to temporarily close the road between the Sennebogen plant and the port,” explained Roland Hermann, head of Customs and Foreign Trade Machine Shipping at Sennebogen.

The heavy load required the use of a tandem hoist with 2 cranes, which were precisely controlled by experienced crane operators. This technique enables the weight to be distributed evenly and minimizes the load on the cranes.

“The challenge was to lift the machines into the barge without any interruptions or jolts. The first machine was loaded at 7 a.m. and 7 machines were safely stowed by midday,” said Mr. Hermann.

Shipping by barge offers considerable environmental benefits
The use of inland waterway vessels for transportation offers considerable environmental benefits. While CO2 emissions for road transport are around 113 g/tkm, they are only 34 g/tkm for transport by inland waterway vessel. This reduces CO2 emissions for the approximately 800-km route by 75%, which corresponds to a saving of around 49 t of CO2.

“This is an important step towards increasing the sustainability of our machine shipments. We plan to carry out inland waterway loading regularly in future and are currently working on implementing a comprehensive sustainability report at Sennebogen,” continued Roland Hermann.

A smooth loading process was only possible thanks to the close cooperation with the port of Straubing, which was heavily involved in the planning and implementation of the barrier measures. The city of Straubing also supported the necessary transport permits.

The machines travelled from Straubing via Antwerp, where some of the machines were loaded directly onto an ocean-going vessel, while the others were transported on to Zeebrugge. The final destination, the port of Charleston, South Carolina, is an important transshipment point for the American company Sennebogen LLC due to its good infrastructure and service quality. The transportation from Belgium to Charleston generally takes around 2 to 3 weeks.

Heavy-​duty shipping via inland waterway vessel at SENNEBOGEN
The successful loading of the 8 machines demonstrates the potential of barge loading as a cost-effective and environmentally friendly alternative to conventional transportation routes.

“We used to concentrate on North Sea ports such as Hamburg and Bremerhaven, but the high reloading costs in

Duisburg made this increasingly unattractive. Transporting machines by barge enables us to reduce logistics costs and act more sustainably at the same time,” explained Mr. Hermann.

In the summer, further transports were carried out by barge. These included the loading of a Sennebogen 895 E material handler to Israel and a 9300 E harbor crane to Turkey. The heaviest component to be loaded weighed an impressive 107 t.

The cooperation with the heavy load terminal and the flexible planning of transport routes will continue to play a central role in Sennebogen machine shipments in the future.

Source: Sennebogen Maschinenfabrik GmbH

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