Drewes Logistics and Martrade Shipping have established DREMAR, which has secured a major contract for the Rhine water transport pipeline.

RWE is planning to build a pipeline to take water from the Rhine near Dormagen in order to flood and renaturalise the Hambach and Garzweiler open-cast mines in the Rhineland mining area from 2030 onwards. The most important part of the Rhine water transport pipeline project is the construction of the approximately 45 km-long double and triple-tube pipeline. 

DREMAR has been contracted to provide transport logistics services of a total of 9,120 coated steel pipes, which have. a total length of 106 km. 

The ports of departure for the shipment of the pipes are Arzew in Algeria and Iskenderun in Turkey. “The sea transport from the ports will take around seven and 13 days respectively. The port of destination is Brake on the Lower Weser,” said Thomas Hölker, managing director of Drewes Logistics. DREMAR is taking 46 box open-hatch vessels on full charter for the shipment. From Brake, the pipes will be transported by rail (10 trains a month) to RWE’s central warehouse in Grevenbroich-Neurath in the Rhineland coalfield. 

DREMAR said that the contract covers the overall logistics organisation for the project, ranging from the provision and loading of the vessels, sea transport and unloading to storage at the port of import in Brake, and onward transport to the central warehouse with all associated services. “The contract stipulates that we will ship 400 pipes a month by sea from September as part of the first batch,” added Günther Hahn, managing director of the Martrade Group.