Project & Breakbulk Cargo

When cargo outgrows the container

A standard container has a door aperture a little under 2.4 metres wide and about 2.6 metres high on a high cube. Anything that will not pass through that opening, or that is too heavy for the floor to take, has to travel another way. That is project and breakbulk territory: transformers, presses, tanks, structural steel, boats, turbine sections and production lines that were never designed to be posted.

The equipment options

Out-of-gauge cargo is matched to equipment rather than the other way round, and the choice drives both the price and the schedule — specialist equipment is a finite pool and it is not available at every port on every sailing.

• Flat rack — no sides or roof, for over-width loads
• Open top — removable roof, for crane-loaded cargo
• Platform — deck only, for the largest bases
• Breakbulk — loaded loose into the vessel's hold
• Heavy-lift vessels with onboard cranes
• Multiple containers for cargo that can be split

Planning is the service

On a project shipment the freight rate is rarely the hard part. The work is the survey and the route: confirming exact dimensions and weight, establishing the lifting points and the centre of gravity, checking that every bridge, roundabout and gateway between the factory and the quay can physically take the load, arranging permits and escorts where the move is abnormal, and agreeing lifting arrangements at both ports. Getting that wrong is not a delay — it is a consignment stopped at a bridge with nowhere to go.

What to send us first

Ask early and ask with numbers. The details that let us start work are exact dimensions and gross weight per piece, the number of pieces, lifting points and whether the item can be tilted or must stay upright, the collection and delivery addresses with any known access constraints, and the date the receiving site actually needs it. Photographs and a general arrangement drawing are worth more than any description. Raise it at enquiry stage rather than after a standard quote — equipment availability, not the rate, usually sets the schedule.