Three flatbed trucks to Fergana

For a supplier from the automotive sector, Militzer & Münch transported a production line from Spain to Uzbekistan: thereby the costumer can curve and temper glass for automotive sidelights and taillights. The teams of Militzer & Münch in Nurnberg, Germany and Tashkent, Uzbekistan, cooperated on the project.

The partner of Militzer & Münch in Spain, Altius S.A., commissioned the shipment to Militzer & Münch Uzbekistan. In March 2017, eight standard trucks and three flatbed trucks started the 7,000 kilometer journey from Northern Spain to the Uzbek part of Fergana Valley.

The trailers boarded the parts of a furnace for curving and tempering automotive sidelights and backlights glasses. The transit time from Aller in the Spanish Asturias to Fergana was about 16 days.

Strict entry requirements project

For security reasons, access to the Fergana valley is strictly regulated for foreign trucks. “As finding an Uzbek carrier in Spain was difficult, we had to look for another option,” says Nelly Djurabaeva, Traffic Manager, Militzer & Münch Uzbekistan, who headed the project. “Together with Denys Gumenyk, head of the Nurnberg projects team, we worked out a route to Fergana with entry into the valley via Osh in Kyrgyzstan. Foreign trucks could use this route to enter Fergana without reloading. The transport went smoothly.”

Setting a good example project

After the successful handling of the comprehensive transport from Spain to Uzbekistan, the team at Militzer & Münch Belarus also used the route recommended by their colleagues – although from another point of origin. This time, ten trucks transported parts of textile machinery from Northern Italy to Fergana, again via Osh, Kyrgyzstan.

The Fergana Valley

  • Densely populated valley in Central Asia, situated between the Tien Shan and Alay mountain ranges
  • It lies mainly on Uzbek and partly on Tajik and Kyrgyz territory
  • More than 10 million people live in the valley that is about 300 kilometers long and up to 110 kilometers in width

Electricity Vietnam

Smartphones, vacuum cleaners, and electric railways – they all run on electricity. And where there’s electricity, insulators are needed, for example to fasten transmissionlines to the transmission tower. Militzer & Münch Ukraine was able to win a producer of polymeric insulators as a customer, and now transports insulator parts from Shanghai to Ukraine, and forwards the finished goods to Vietnam.

The contract was already signed in the beginning of June 2016 for a duration of three years. “New customers with regular transport orders are extremely important to us, as this strengthens our market position”, says Yuliya Bezverkha, Marketing & Sales at Militzer & Münch Ukraine.

European quality at very low prices

Militzer & Münch Ukraine’s customer designs and manufactures polymeric insulators for current  lines, open switching stations and substations as well as AC overhead  lines for railways. The insulators are produced in the Donetsk region according to international safety specifications before they are exported to Vietnam.

“The most important advantage of products produced in Ukraine is European quality at Chinese prices.”

Yuliya Bezverkha
Marketing & Sales, Militzer & Münch Ukraine

For the manufacturing process, the company relies on equipment from Germany, Switzerland, and from other leading foreign suppliers. The machinery allows fully automating the basic manufacturing processes. “The most important advantage of products produced in Ukraine is European quality at Chinese prices”, says Yuliya Bezverkha. The finished products are then exported. The insulators that go to Vietnam are roughly 1.5 meters in length and weigh four kilograms each.

Import and export from one source

Militzer & Münch Ukraine handles the import as well as the export for their customer. “We import parts from Shanghai to Ukraine, mainly via sea freight in 20 foot containers, sometimes also via air,” says Yuliya Bezverkha. “The goods we transport are fastening elements that connect the insulators to the current line and the transmission tower.”

After they have arrived in Ukraine, the goods are trucked from the Port of Odessa or Kiev Airport to the production factory in the Donetsk region. Here, the polymeric insulators are produced and packed in wooden boxes for on-forwarding. The finished insulators are transported to Ho Chi Minh City, mostly by air.

During one year, the M&M Ukraine team shipped more than 15 tons in airfreight and 51 in sea freight in imports from Shanghai, and more than 24 tons by air and 50 tons by sea in exports to Vietnam. “We appreciate the trust the costumer puts in us”, says Yuliya Bezverkha.

What are insulators?

Insulators must offer high mechanical stability, but very low electric conductivity. In order to combine these two components, insulators are made from solid insulating materials such as aluminum oxide ceramics, porcelain, glass, glass-fiber reinforced plastics or epoxy resins.

Insulators are used to fasten or guide bare electrical conductors. The current flow through the fastening element is inhibited to the largest part. Insulators used in the open, for instance on transmission towers, big antennas or substations, moreover have to be durable in view of ultraviolet radiation and weather variations.

Hydropower for Central Asia

Sustainable energy supply: About 100 kilometers north of Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, a dam is being built on the river Vakhsh. The Militzer & Münch Group handles the door-to-door transport of the components for two gas-insulated switchgears for the hydropower station, which is part of the dam.

Once finished, the Rogun dam will be the world’s tallest river dam, measuring 335 meters in height. The Rogun hydroelectric station is to supply several regions of Central Asia with electricity. Six 600-megawatt turbines will produce about 13.3 billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year. In the switchgears, the electric energy is distributed or transformed, which prevents overload and shorts.

Secured cargo

In the course of this year, Militzer & Münch transports numerous parts for two switchgears by truck to the Rogun dam construction site. The project is handled by the Militzer & Münch team in Nuremberg. Components for the switchgear systems come from Germany, Turkey and Poland.

The total weight of the parts amounts to 1,800 tons. On the long transport routes, the 180 to 200 trucks – 30 of them with an over height of 3.4 meters – cross several narrow mountain passes. At many passages, there’s the danger of falling rocks or avalanches. Therefore, the packaging of the goods must be heavy-duty and secure for transport, so that the cargo arrives at the destination undamaged.

Perfect coordination

In order to meet the timelines of the construction schedule, the Militzer & Münch team coordinates 20 to 25 truck transports per week. The customs clearance is done by the consignee.

Electricity from water power

  • In 1867, the Frenchman Benoît Fourneyron developed the first practicable water turbine.
  • In 1866, Werner von Siemens invented the electro-dynamic generator that was able to convert movement into electric energy.
  • The first hydropower plant to generate electricity was built in England in 1880.
  • In 1895, the world’s first large hydropower station was taken into operation at the Niagara Falls.
  • In Europe, the first water-powered stations were built in Rheinfelden on the Rhine in 1898.

Big delivery to Kazakhstan

Loaded with everything a hotel has to provide, 30 containers are crossing entire continents. The Militzer & Münch branch office at Eichenzell serves as the control tower for the scheduling, coordinating, handling and monitoring of the goods flow. The project is to be finished in April.

The project involves four continents: Europe, Asia, Australia and the United States. The transports from the different countries to Kazakhstan, the place of destination, can take between 22 and 70 days – depending on where the transport starts. In a first step, the majority of the products go to Eichenzell, via airfreight, via sea or road. Once they arrive, the goods are trucked to Duisburg, where they are loaded onto trains and shipped to Astana in Kazakhstan. The train ride takes 20 days.

It’s all about cooperation

In cooperation with sister company InterRail, the Eichenzell Militzer & Münch team dispatches some 30 containers. The forty-footers are carrying a cargo of totally diverse goods: From furniture and electric appliances, toiletries and fitness equipment to kids’ toys and many more. The Militzer & Münch locations in Frankfurt, Hamburg and Berlin are involved in the entire process as well. Regarding the truck transports, Militzer & Münch Eichenzell cooperates with CargoLine and other partners.

Militzer & Münch draws up the documents for the customer: From packing lists to commercial invoices and export declarations. They also check the import licenses and any necessary certificates. This is essential, as the suppliers are sending their goods to Europe; while the goods then are headed for Kazakhstan. With the original documents, the goods cannot be cleared in Astana; so the paperwork had to be translated into Russian.

 

Astana, the second largest city in Kazakhstan

  • Astana was proclaimed capital of the country in 1997.
  • The city has 814.401 inhabitants (data from 2014).
  • The majority of the big buildings were built since 1998.
  • Over the past 20 years, a new government quarter, shopping malls and business centers, apartment buildings and museums were erected. By December 2013, about 32 billion US dollars had been invested in the capital’s development.
  • An additional boost for urban development is owed to Expo 2017, the World’s Fair that is held in Astana. The Kazakh capital invests in the development of traffic infrastructure and other projects to cope with the large number of visitors  coming to the fair and  a further increase in population.
  • Owing to its situation in the middle of the country, Astana holds a special position as a traffic hub.

Structural elements from three continents

All in all, the Militzer & Münch Group transports almost 190 containers laden with parts for a paper machine to Russia. The German and the Chinese Militzer & Münch organizations are involved in the multimodal transports. The challenging project will be finalized in this summer. 

The Republic of Karelia lies in the Northwest of the Russian Federation. In Segezha, a town of 30,000, a paper mill is being modernized and equipped with anew paper machine. Paper and cardboard are, alongside wood and metals, the main exports of the region. The majority of the parts for the machine come from the Voith Group. Voith St. Petersburg assembles the paper machine in cooperation with the end customer. For the transportation of the machine parts, Voith commissioned, among others, Militzer & Münch.

Complete imports from China and Brazil

Once assembled, the paper machine measures 130 meters in length and 10.5 meters in width. It consists of numerous parts. Militzer & Münch is responsible for the entire imports from China and Brazil to Germany and for the container exports via sea from Germany to Russia. In September 2016 Militzer & Münch began dispatching the first ocean transports of components from Brazil and China to Germany using leasing containers.

First sea shipments from Hamburg to St. Petersburg are planned for April. The goods are then on-forwarded from St. Petersburg to Segezha via road.

 

“The good cooperation and intensive communication between the Militzer & Münch teams in China and Germany have allowed the project to proceed smoothly.”

Thomas Czojor
Manager Militzer & Münch Air & Sea branch Hamburg

 

Different containers used

A planning phase of several weeks preceded the project. “Together with our suppliers, we have to individually adapt the transport mode for each single delivery”, says Thomas Czojor, Manager of the Militzer & Münch Air & Sea branch Hamburg. “For example, many calender rolls for the machine come from China. We transported them to Hamburg with open top containers.”  Apart from open top containers, Militzer & Münch also uses high cube and flat rack containers for this order (cf. box), plus one out-of-gauge box.

The oversize box, measuring 3.45 meters in length, 3.33 meters in width, 4.20 meters in height and weighing 19 tons, had a very long journey. “Due to its height, this break bulk load was a special challenge”, says Thomas Czojor. “We delivered it from Shanghai via Antwerp in a special transport to the customer’s plant in Heidenheim, Germany.” The component for the paper machine will now be transported to Russia on a truck.

 

Customs know-how is a must

Apart from the transport per se, Militzer & Münch is also responsible for part of the customs clearance. “We did the export clearance in Brazil and China, the import clearance in Germany and the export clearance for Russia”, says Thomas Czojor. The import customs clearance in Russia is done by the end customer’s customs broker.

So far, the entire project has been handled to the fullest satisfaction of the customer. “The good cooperation and intensive communication between the Militzer & Münch teams in China and Germany have allowed the project to proceed smoothly”, says Thomas Czojor. The customer has already placed new enquiries with Militzer & Münch; they are being worked on.

 

Karelia

Karelia is located in Europe’s Northeast, between the Baltic Sea and the White Sea. The entire region covers an area of about 200,000 square kilometers. 85 percent of the area is Russian territory: that’s the Republic of Karelia with a population of 700,000. About 30,000 square kilometers belong to Finland; the Finnish part counts 400,000 inhabitants.

 

The Russian part of Karelia is governed as an autonomous republic within the Russian Federation with regional legislation and its own constitution. Among the main export goods are treated and untreated wood, but also paper and cardboard. The major trade partners are Finland, Germany, the USA and Great Britain.

 

The paper machine

As far back as 2,000 years ago, the Chinese knew a method to produce paper. In Europe, paper wasn’t produced until a thousand years later. Before the industrial revolution, it had to be made by hand.  At that time, paper was a precious and expensive raw material.

In 1789, Frenchman Nicholas-Louis Robert invented a machine that produced continuous paper instead of one sheet at a time – a cost-efficient and fast method of papermaking. With this invention, the product became accessible to the public at large.

Some years later, British paper merchants Henry and Sealy Fourdrinier added yet another essential improvement to Robert’s invention with the help of engineer Bryan Donkin. They developed a machine where all the processes follow one after the other without an attendant having to interfere.

The basic principle of the paper making machine has not at all changed since: Cellulose fibers from plants are diluted in water to pulp. A sieve separates the fibers and water; the crude paper or web is formed. The remaining humidity is extracted from the paper sheet via pressure and heat. In the final calendering process, the paper is smoothed.

Today, paper machines produce about 1,800 meters of paper per minute. The quantity produced by a modern paper machine in one hour surpasses the annual quantity a machine was able to manufacture in the 19th century.

 

What containers were used by Militzer & Münch in this project?

 

For lightweight and voluminous goods, high cube containers are the preferred choice. They are about 30 centimeters higher than standard 40-foot containers, allowing for higher piles of palettes. A 40-foot box measures 12.03 meters in length, 2.35 in width and 2.68 in height.

 

Open top containers are mostly used for higher shipments. They can be loaded from the top by crane, if loading through container doors is impossible. Open top containers can be closed with a removable tarpaulin. The 40-foot containers measure 12.03 meters by 2.35 by 2.38.

 

For out-of-gauge or voluminous cargo, a flat rack container is used. Boxes that are larger than a closed container can be loaded onto such containers. The cargo is safely secured with posts and lashing straps according to legal requirements. A 40-foot container measures 12.05 meters by 2.44 by 2.26.