On behalf of its client TPSK—a Consortium of TechnipFMC and SK Engineering & Construction—deugro moved 280,000 freight tons of petrochemical equipment from over 35 worldwide seaports and airports to the construction site on Long Son Island near Vũng Tàu, Vietnam.

Nearly 178,300 freight tons of the most critical oversized and heavy lift (OSHL) components were successfully delivered by 155 breakbulk shipments on 55 chartered heavy lift vessels. All shipments were executed in times of widespread and ever-changing restrictions on short notice due to the COVID-19 pandemic and with skyrocketing freight rates and severely limited vessels and vessel space capacities.

The overall project encompassed over 1,400 breakbulk, container, and air freight shipments— with nearly 37,000 packages and a total weight of almost 68,510 metric tons—from Singapore, Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, South Korea, Thailand, the UK, and the USA to Phu My, Vietnam.

deugro Singapore, as the project control tower, worked closely with a total of 16 deugro country organizations around the globe to handle the extraordinary complexity of this project. More than 50 deugro experts were in daily contact with the client and all subcontractors and worked together across the project supply chain to ensure safe delivery, smooth operations, and efficient responses to a variety of challenges in a timely manner.

To ensure the safe ocean transportation of the huge cargo packages across more than 213,000 nautical miles, deugro and its partners produced bespoke method statements, transport arrangement drawings, detailed motion analyses, ballasting and mooring calculations, ramp arrangements, lifting and rigging calculations, as well as stowage and sea fastening designs. 

The 24 most challenging OSHL components—with single weights of up to 778 metric tons, lengths of nearly 100 meters, and a total volume of over 48,000 cubic meters—were delivered from Kuantan, Malaysia to Long Son, Vũng Tàu, Vietnam despite last-minute schedule changes during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic and strict mandates.

To keep to the estimated project budget for the client in this difficult market situation, deugro secured at an early stage the required cargo space and contracted, in collaboration with its partner Roll Group, six semi-submersible multifunctional vessels specialized for heavy lift shipments. 

The biggest challenge was the transport of a C3 tower with a length of 93 meters and a weight of 800 metric tons, including transport beams, from the fabrication yard to Kuantan Port. The six-kilometer journey took nearly 11 hours at a driving speed of a maximum of three kilometers per hour. It was among the largest cargo components ever handled at Kuantan Port. 

“Drastically increasing COVID-19 cases and the associated restrictions in Malaysia and Vietnam led to repeated and last-minute changes in the schedule. Flexibility, coordination and timely communication of deugro’s project team with the client, the project owner, the supplier, and all partners were paramount to keeping the project on track. To ensure successful project execution within this challenging scenario, deugro’s project teams proactively provided daily status reports and were in permanent communication with the client, the project owner, local authorities, and all partners,” said Benjamin Mutti, Regional Director, deugro Singapore & Malaysia. “The outstanding cooperation between deugro, dteq, Roll Group, the client, the suppliers, and Kuantan Port ensured that all difficult OSHL components were delivered safely and successfully on time and on budget.”

“In the collaboration with deugro, we experienced an overall good and fair approach throughout the project by the different involved parties, which we will also consider for future business,” said Vincenzo Lagana, Project Director, Technip Energies.