Goodrich Pulls Out All Stops for Kazakhstan Generator Move

Breakbulk specialist Goodrich Central Asia spared no effort to ensure a set of power generators were swiftly delivered from the US to a crude processing plant at Atyrau in western Kazakhstan.

The six components weighing 25 tonnes a piece were urgently needed by Goodrich’s client to maintain power supply at the facility in Atyrau, one of Kazakhstan’s main energy-producing hubs.

Given such a tight deadline, Goodrich convinced the client that airlifting the generators would be a better option than ocean freight, said Sanju Mani, general manager at Goodrich Central Asia.

The cargo was first picked up from New Jersey and North Carolina by Goodrich’s logistics partner in the US and transported by truck to Baltimore airport. The out-of-gauge units were then loaded onto two Antonov AN124-100s, one of the heaviest cargo aircraft on the market with a gross payload capacity of 120 tonnes.

“This cargo could not be loaded onto any other plane,” Mani said. “We checked all other possibilities – but no 747, nothing could take this cargo other than an Antonov.”

To avoid Russian airspace, the AN124s, each carrying three generators, flew as far as Istanbul airport, where a team from Goodrich were on hand to oversee the transferal of the units onto 40-foot flat-beds.

The trailers, each manned with three drivers, then began a 2,600-kilometre passage through Georgia and Azerbaijan and on to Kuryk in Kazakhstan by ferry before embarking on a final leg north to the job site.

The overland journey from Istanbul to Atyrau took ten days, Mani said.

“None of us slept for like four or five nights. We were working around the clock. We had to work around different time zones, staying awake all night to make sure everything was in order. The flight permits, the landing permissions – everything had to be worked out,” he said.

“But the cargo arrived on schedule.”

Kazakhstan-based Goodrich Central Asia is a 100 percent-owned unit of India’s Goodrich Maritime. Goodrich Maritime will be exhibiting at Breakbulk Middle East 2023, taking place on 13-14 February at the Dubai World Trade Centre, Dubai.