deugro Delivers for Texas Petchem Project (video)

By Simon West

deugro has pulled out all the stops to deliver more than 85,000 cubic meters of oversized and heavy-lift equipment for a large-scale petrochemical project in Texas.

The cargo, which included nearly 530 twenty-foot equivalent (TEUs) and over 50 tons of airfreight, was shipped from more than 20 global ports and airports to Port Arthur before final delivery to the project site by barge and truck. The operation involved logistics coordination across 14 countries and the chartering of 10 heavy-lift vessels.

deugro Japan managed the project as the “control tower”, coordinating cargo pick-up, vessel loading, stowing and securing operations at multiple origin ports, with support from local deugro USA teams.

“One of the full-charter vessels, which was booked for a shipment from Korea nearly one year prior to the shipment, missed the agreed laycan due to the effects of the Red Sea crisis,” said Haruka Somura, general manager at deugro Japan.

“However, thanks to our strategic partnerships with the carriers, we were able to find and charter another heavy-lift vessel with the required capacity one month prior to laycan. This enabled us to prevent significant project delays and extra costs for the client and the project owner.”

Touchdown in Texas

After arriving at Port Arthur, a large chunk of the cargo was transloaded directly onto deck barges for the final leg to the construction site via a 17.5-nautical-mile inland route. Among the most challenging components were a 540-ton C2 splitter and a 375-ton, 54-meter-long caustic tower, which called for custom barge configurations arranged by deugro Houston.

With tight barge supply and multiple vessels arriving simultaneously at the discharge port, deugro put into action a barge reuse strategy to maintain operational flow.

“This was particularly challenging and had to be meticulously designed since any delays caused, for instance, by weather or congestion could have potentially delayed the vessel operations with significant additional costs as a consequence,” said Gert Jensen, senior vice president of operations at deugro USA.

deugro’s sister company dteq Transport Engineering Solutions designed the transport engineering measures necessary for safe inland barge movement, including structural load analysis and barge preparation to accommodate the oversized cargo.

After 17 barge voyages and roll-off operations at a newly constructed dock near the Marine Offloading Facility (MOF), all cargo units were successfully delivered using self-propelled modular transporters (SPMTs).

“The overall project scope, with its considerable number of challenging OSHL cargo components, interfaces, vessel and barge voyages, overland trips and transloading operations, in conjunction with the strict delivery sequences of the construction site, required meticulous preparation, proactive coordination and closest communication between all parties involved,” Jensen said.

“All this as well as the full support of the client, project owner and all subcontractors were the keys to successful project delivery.”

Watch the offiical video of the project:



deugro and dteq will be exhibiting at Breakbulk Europe 2025.

TOP PHOTO: Barge unloading operations at the destination. CREDIT: deugro