Production furnace crosses the Atlantic

For the project logistics experts at a. hartrodt, tasks can't be tricky enough. For the relocation of a production furnace from Oberriet (Switzerland) to Celaya (Mexico) for the automotive supplier Mubea, a multinational team was on top form. "The challenge was to transport the 85-ton and over 20-meter-long oven unassembled across continents using various modes of transport," says John Boelts, Key Account Manager Mubea Projects at a. hartrodt Czech Republic. From Prague, he supervised the successful loading of the project at interfaces in Switzerland, Belgium and Mexico.

From Basel on the river Rhine to Antwerp

Loading began at the Mubea plant in Oberriet in mid-July 2023. A special vehicle transported the 20.3 by 3.75 by 3.30 meters furnace to Basel, around 200 kilometers away. There it was loaded onto a barge with ten other plant components and reached by river Rhine at the end of July the Belgian port of Antwerp, where it was reloaded directly onto a seagoing vessel. "The colleagues at a. hartrodt Switzerland and Antwerp did a great job," praises John Boelts.

Import customs clearance works differently in Mexico than in Europe

When the project cargo reached the Mexican Atlantic port of Veracruz at the end of August after a good three-week ship passage, Yamil Caceres took over at night time the coordination with customs agents and the transportation company. "The European colleagues had to learn that customs work differently here," says the Operations Manager at a. hartrodt Mexico with a wink. Everything else went according to plan – the loading onto a special vehicles plus 7 other low-loaders, the land transport to the Mubea warehouse Apaseo near Celaya (State of Guanajuato) over 600 kilometers away, the unloading.

According to Yamil Caceres, the team in Mexico received all the permits for the door-to-door service "smoothly". John Boelts emphasizes: "Our flexibility makes the difference and convinced the customer."