Heavy Machinery Shipping by Sea: What to Check Before Fixing

Machinery is the most common project cargo and the one that produces the most surprises, because it arrives at the quay in a different condition from the one described in the enquiry. A boom was left on. A cab was not folded. The machine was quoted at its catalogue weight and turned up with a counterweight, a bucket and full tanks.

Every one of those is a change to the ship's stowage plan, and some of them are a change to the ship. This article is the check that removes them before a vessel is fixed.

First: what kind of machine is it

The single most useful distinction is how the unit gets on board.

• Self-propelled and roadworthy — trucks, buses, wheeled loaders, agricultural machinery. Can be driven on over a ramp where a suitable service exists, or lifted;
• Self-propelled but not roadworthy — tracked excavators, dozers, cranes on crawlers. Can be driven on board, but tracks damage decks and ramps, so mats or timber are laid and speed is restricted;
• Towable — trailers, equipment on skids, machines that will not start;
• Static — presses, mills, generators, gearboxes, equipment on a frame. Lifted, always.

The answer determines whether the enquiry goes to Ro-Ro services, to geared multipurpose tonnage, or to both for comparison. Where a shipment is large enough to fill a ship, the comparison is worth making properly — the same choice applied to a fleet of vehicles is worked through in Electric Bus Shipping from China to Europe.

Dimensions as shipped, not as catalogued

The figures that matter are the ones the machine will have on the day it is loaded, after preparation. That usually means:

• booms, arms, buckets and blades removed or folded, and shipped where they belong on the list;
• cabs and exhaust stacks lowered where the design allows;
• mirrors, aerials and lights folded or removed;
• counterweights fitted or shipped separately — and stated either way;
• any crating, framing or skid included in the measurement.

Height is the dimension that most often breaks a stowage plan, because it decides whether a unit goes under deck at all, and under a Ro-Ro deck it decides whether it goes on that deck. A hundred millimetres is enough to matter.

Weight should be the actual weight with fluids as shipped, not the dry catalogue figure. For a heavy machine the difference can be several tonnes.

Preparation before shipment

Carriers and owners have requirements, and they are easier to meet at the factory or the yard than at the quay:

• Fuel — normally reduced to a small quantity, often a quarter tank or less, for anything driven on board;
• Batteries — disconnected, and secured against movement;
• Fluids — leaks fixed before shipment; a machine dripping oil onto a deck or onto cargo below is a claim waiting to happen;
• Loose parts — removed, listed and packed, or secured to the machine;
• Openings — exhausts and intakes covered where the unit travels on deck;
• Cleaning — several countries refuse entry to used machinery carrying soil or plant material, and the inspection happens on arrival, when there is no cheap remedy. Where the destination has such a requirement, cleaning and its certificate belong in the shipping plan.

Lashing points and how the machine is secured

Machinery is secured through designated tie-down points. Where the manufacturer has provided them, they are used; where they have not, the securing arrangement has to be worked out with the ship and may involve welded points or a frame, which is a cost and a delay.

It is a fair question to put to the supplier early: where are the lashing points, and what load will they take? For tracked machines the tracks themselves are chocked and blocked; for wheeled units the wheels are chocked and the suspension is considered, because a machine on soft suspension moves inside its lashings in a way a rigid one does not.

Deck or under deck

Under deck protects the cargo from weather and sea, and it is limited by hatch dimensions and by the headroom in the hold. On deck accepts almost any size, at the cost of exposure, and for machinery it usually means covering and a securing arrangement designed for green water.

The decision belongs in the negotiation rather than to the loading port, because "on deck at charterer's risk" is a clause with real consequences for the cargo insurance. Where a machine must travel under deck, that requirement goes into the enquiry — it removes ships, and it is better to know which ones at the start.

The ports

• berth length, draft and crane capacity, with the crane's capacity at the radius the lift needs;
• a ramp of adequate width, gradient and load capacity where units are driven on;
• laydown space, and how long cargo may occupy it;
• access for low-loaders, and the inland route with its bridges, gradients and permits;
• experience of the terminal with this kind of cargo, which shows up in how long the operation takes;
• customs treatment of used machinery, which in some countries is slower and more document-heavy than for new equipment.

Combining units to fill a ship

A single machine rarely justifies a chartered vessel. Several usually do, and mixing them improves the result further: heavy units low in the hold, lighter and larger ones above and on deck, and the gaps filled with crated parts, steel or bagged cargo from the same region.

This is where freight per unit falls sharply, and it is worth asking at the enquiry stage whether other cargo from the same area is moving in the same window. Kiev Shipping fixes machinery alongside transformers, steel structures, vehicles and general cargo for exactly this reason.

The pre-fixture checklist

1. Packing list: every unit, dimensions and weight as shipped, number of pieces;
2. Photographs of the units in the condition they will be presented;
3. How each unit is to be loaded — driven, towed or lifted;
4. Lifting points, or the absence of them;
5. Lashing points and their capacity;
6. Under deck required, or on deck acceptable;
7. Preparation to be carried out, and by whom;
8. Cleaning and certification required by the destination;
9. Ports at both ends with crane, ramp and quay data;
10. Cargo readiness dates, unit by unit.

Ten answers. Collected before the market is approached, they produce offers that hold; collected afterwards, they produce revisions — and revisions in project cargo are rarely downward.

Kiev Shipping Ltd charters vessels for construction and agricultural machinery, industrial equipment, generators, transformers, steel structures, vehicles and other out-of-gauge cargo, working with the shipper on the cargo documentation before approaching owners. Final lifting plans, stability calculations and securing arrangements remain with the vessel's owners, the master and the appointed specialists.

Service overview: Project Cargo Services and Electric Buses and Machinery.

See also: Breakbulk and Project Cargo: Why Planning Starts Before the Vessel Is Fixed · Transformer Cargo Chartering · How to submit a chartering enquiry · more in Breakbulk Cargo.