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Richard Hyde spends a month moving a giant load from China to Peru. BY GAVIN RILEY
Global Transport doesn’t physically move big loads itself from one foreign country to another. But it arranges, manages and co-ordinates the transportation logistics to ensure such daunting hauls are carried out smoothly, with no foul-ups. The heat exchangers were manufactured near Shanghai and were destined for a mining town near Peru’s capital, Lima. One was 17.5 metres by four metres by four metres and weighed 54 tonnes. The other was 19.2 metres by four metres by four metres and was 67 tonnes. Global was responsible for loading the exchangers out of the factory, hauling them for a day and a night to the port of Shanghai, loading them onto a ship it had chartererd, transporting them on the 27-day journey to Peru, unloading them at Callao, the port of Lima, hauling them for two days to the metals-mining town of Unidad, and unloading them. “A lot of work went into making it work,” says Global Transport managing director Richard Hyde, winner of the US-based Specialist Carriers & Rigging Association’s award for international project of the year in 1997 (when, as head of Owen’s Project Services, he shifted 12,000 cubic metres of power-station componentry 57 kilometres in Taranaki). “The big thing is the risk. It’s a huge risk when you’re working in third-world countries. After years of doing it, we’ve never actually been caught out. It’s picking the right contractors to do the job. “In China we use our agent from Hong Kong, who speaks fluent Mandarin. We’re doing more work up there and it saves me going there from New Zealand to look at preparations. Our agent does it. When it’s time to move a heavy load, then I go up.” Despite the careful planning, the China-Peru haul was not without its moments, both tense and tiresome. For instance, on the way to the port of Shanghai, the exchangers had only 75mm clearance under bridges – that’s less than the width of your hand. Then at Unidad, journey’s end, the last mile proved the longest. “There were huge delays getting the load to the site because of problems on site with a lot of the procedures,” Hyde says. “It’s quite rough there and they’re careful who does what. Decision-making takes a long time. We couldn’t get the necessary approvals to get onto the site. There was a lot of paperwork.” Despite such frustrations, Global Transport is eager to secure a contract to move five longer and heavier heat exchangers from Shanghai to a different site in Peru. “It’s a growing market, and an interesting market,” Hyde says. “We’re doing a lot of work out of China and into Singapore, and some work from Shanghai into Ireland coming up later this year.” Global operates with a small team, and they’re all family – Hyde, his wife Colleen, his son Brendon, his Australian-based brother Jack, and (when necessary) a former colleague from heavy-haulage days, Les Everson. “We don’t need to have a whole bunch of people here, and we only use people we can trust,” says Hyde, a former president of the Heavy Haulage Association. “When we’re working overseas it’s with a lot of agents we’ve had since 1989 or 1990. Their language skills are good, and they’re all hands-on operators like we are. It works. “If we go into a country where we haven’t got an agent, or someone we can rely on, we call on a member of the Specialised Carriers & Rigging Association, of which we’re a member. That way you know you’re working with someone who’s reputed to be a good operator. “We’re working in all sorts of countries and we don’t have too many hassles.” For all that, anyone contemplating conducting business in China needs to be respectful of the culture and local rules, Hyde says. “You don’t just go and get a permit and go down the road. There’s a lot of political stuff before you even get a permit to move. For instance, all the approvals had to be applied for before the heat exchangers were even built – we had to think, if we build them can we move them? “There’s a lot of backroom stuff going on. Sometimes it can be quite frightening, because even when you think everything’s all set and you get to the wharf, you can’t get on the wharf. “The risks are high, and even having the right people in place I’m sure there are some little things going on in the background that I don’t even want to know about, to make sure the job gets done. “I think it happens in China because the people are getting paid such small amounts of money. You pay one person at the top and he issues the money further down the chain.” Contractor Vol.32 No.3 April 2008 |
Global Transport is a New Zealand business whose livelihood consists of living up to its name. Based on Auckland’s North Shore, the company recently moved two giant heat exchangers from China to Peru – a month-long job.