FIVE heavylift pieces of infrastructure equipment were recently unloaded at Abu Dhabi’s Free Port, next to Zayed Port, constituting the largest and longest heavy cargo Abu Dhabi Ports Company (ADPC) ever handled at the port.

The cargo was meant for Abu Dhabi Oil Refining Company (Takreer) for the new carbon black and delayed coker plant being built at the chemical refining complex in Ruwais, Abu Dhabi.

The pieces, weighing between 140 and 1,531 tonnes, were unloaded onto the quay by a roll off operation with SPMT trailers having up to 76 axles.

The logistics plan was that the pieces would be stored in the Free Port for 10 days before being reloaded onto a barge to travel down the coast of Abu Dhabi to Ruwais. The shipment involved very close liaison between the ADPC operations team and their customer Takreer to ensure smooth transshipment for such extreme cargo.

The largest piece of the infrastructure equipment had a weight of 1,531 tonnes, width of 12 m and length of 116 m – the longest piece that has ever been received in the Free Port, the statement said.

ADPC manages and operates the Free Port which is close to the main Zayed Port in the city.