December 8 - European abnormal and heavy haulage provider Van der Vlist has undertaken two factory relocation movements continents apart but using the same freight forwarding skills.

Van der Vlist UK co-ordinated the movement of an industrial oven from a factory in Yorkshire, England to northern Spain while Van der Vlist Logistics arranged packing, lashing and transportation of a complete production line for solar panels from The Netherlands to China.

The Dutch production line comprised some very high and wide parts, meaning that a combination of custom-made oversized boxes and containers needed to be utilised to house these abnormal sized elements.

The UK project involved moving three oven sections, each 10 m long, 3 m wide and 3 m high, along with three full trailer loads of ancillary equipment to their final location in San Adrian in northern Spain (pictured below).

Van der Vlist UK utilised trucks from Zwaar Transport Twente, part of the Van der Vlist group. ZTT used two-axle tractor units pulling four-axle semi-trailers to move each oven section.

In order the move the production line to China, Van der Vlist utilised oversized containers. Because of the load being made up of mainly electronic components, it was essential that the packed items were also carefully protected. All loads were loaded by crane onto flat and low bed trailers; these were then transported by road to Rotterdam port. The containers were then loaded into the lower deck of a containership to protect the boxes from the elements (pictured below).

In China, the final leg of the journey involved transporting the boxes by road to the factory where they were unloaded.