Industry leader Sarens orders 92 new Goldhofer axle lines for the world's biggest construction site

It is a superlative project: On what perhaps is currently the largest construction site in the world, a huge oil field in Kazakhstan, the Sarens Group is responsible for the complete site logistics for a planned construction period from 2017 to 2020. The objective of the overall project is a major upgrade of the existing refinery facility to increase well pressure and overall production capacity.

It is no coincidence that the refinery operators chose Sarens to handle the site logistics for this exceptional project. The third-generation family run company based in Wolvertem, Belgium, is the world’s leading provider of crane rental services, heavy lifting, heavy haulage and engineering services. At 100 locations in over 65 countries, Sarens has almost 4,500 employees and, with the signing of the contract for the world's largest construction site, has set a new record for itself: The contract, worth 450 million euros, covers the entire logistics of the gigantic refinery project, which has an estimated total cost of 36.8 billion dollars, making it the largest single contract in the company's history.

As a first step in the project work, the transport specialists from Sarens, using a multidisciplinary team drawn from worldwide Sarens operations, established two trans-shipment bases (TSB) as the focal points for offloading and forwarding all cargo to the construction site in Kazakhstan. Carl Sarens, Director Global Operations: "We have dispatched around 250 specialists to handle the overland transportation and on-site installation of the pre-assembled units and racks and associated oversize equipment. For the overland transportation operations, Sarens already had more than 900 axle lines available in Kazakhstan. At the beginning of 2018, however, we saw an upcoming peak in the required logistical capacities as of the beginning of 2018. We therefore had to urgently increase our capacities to avoid problems in meeting the project schedule. Goldhofer delivered a convincing response with top quality at very short notice and absolutely punctual shipments.“

To be precise, the Belgians ordered a total of 68 THP/SL and 24 PST/SL axle lines plus four 280 PS PowerPacks from the Memmingen-based world market leader for heavy haulage and specialized transport solutions in mid-May 2018, thus increasing the size of its Goldhofer fleet to a total of more than 300 axle lines. Horst Häfele, Head of  Product Management at Goldhofer, says: "We are proud of the fact that our axle lines are being used by a prominent customer like Sarens for such a prestigious project. The Goldhofer production team did a great job in terms of coordination and completed the entire order in less than three months. Everyone was highly motivated to complete the largest single order ever received from Sarens to such a tight schedule. Many of us worked special shifts to meet the deadline.“

With the 68 axle lines, Sarens placed its trust in a worldwide proven standard in the heavy-haulage industry. Goldhofer modules are extremely robust and provide a high bending moment. With their modular design, they can be configured in all required combinations, while the variable wheelbases and a wide range of accessories enable them to handle loads of all shapes and sizes.

With the 24 PST/SL modules, Sarens has additionally expanded its transport capacities for particularly heavy construction site loads. With a tractive force of 160 kN per axle line, the PST/SL are veritable workhorses and are also ideal for use in combination with the THP/SL. The four PowerPacks from Goldhofer provide the necessary propulsion for particularly bulky and heavy plant components. Equipment Trade Officer Jan Sarens explains: „Goldhofer was the only heavy-duty module manufacturer who could guarantee punctual delivery of high-grade axle lines in such a quantity within such a short time. As a result we were able to meet our contractual obligations towards our client, and Goldhofer was able to consolidate its position as a long-serving transport technology partner of the Sarens Group.“