Project Cargo Services

What our project cargo services cover

We start with the ship. Project cargo and break bulk travel on a small specialist fleet. MPP ships (multi-purpose ships with their own cranes) carry cranes rated 60 to 350 MT, and two cranes together can lift up to 700 MT. Heavy-lift ships lift 400, 700 or 1,000+ MT in a single piece. Tweendeckers have a second deck inside the hold, which makes stowage flexible. Open-hatch bulkers take long pieces that cannot be split, and general cargo ships carry break-bulk programmes. The ship has to fit the cargo before we talk about price. We check crane SWL (safe working load), hold size, tweendeck strength, weather-deck class and how much weight the tanktop (the floor of the hold) can take.

Two kinds of cargo use this fleet, and neither moves in containers or as dry bulk.

Project cargo means pieces that are too big, too heavy or too awkwardly shaped for a container. Many are also too big for an ordinary general cargo ship. Typical pieces are wind turbine blades and nacelles, transformers, port cranes, industrial plant modules, prefab building sections, heavy machinery such as excavators and crushers, pressure vessels and bridge sections. We treat each piece as an engineering job. The lift points, centre of gravity, sea-fastening and air draft all have to check out before the piece goes on board.

Break bulk travels as separate units on the same ships: steel coils and plate, sawn lumber, bagged cargo (urea, cement, fertiliser), drummed cargo (chemicals, lubricants, packed bitumen) and packaged machinery. Each unit is smaller than a project piece. It still needs a stowage plan, dunnage and lashings. Our break-bulk cargo guide explains how this cargo is handled.

Project cargo and break bulk are part of Bulkargo’s wider ship brokering work. We have fixed project cargo and machinery alongside our dry-bulk business since 2022. The work covers lifting plans across several load ports, heavy-lift crane fixtures, and lashing and securing plans signed off by the master and the surveyor. It also covers the inland coordination that often comes at each end of a project voyage.

Cargoes we cover

Each industry ships its own kind of cargo. Wind parts are huge and light for their length. Blades need cradles and careful handling on the weather deck. A nacelle puts all its weight on a single lift point. Mining cargo is the opposite. Excavator bodies, crusher housings and mill liners pack a lot of weight into short, awkward shapes. Construction and EPC clients ship prefab modules and pressure vessels, and for these the engineering paperwork matters as much as the lift. Infrastructure projects bring port cranes, bridge sections and long pipe that hangs over the end. Most projects mix two or three of these.

Why project cargo needs a specialist broker

General freight forwarders often struggle with project cargo. The hard part comes before the price: the ship’s technical limits. Nobody can negotiate those limits. Get one of them wrong and the cargo cannot be loaded when the ship arrives.

The master and chief officer draw up the stowage plan. The cargo owner or its insurer often hires a Marine Warranty Surveyor (MWS) as well. The MWS checks the sea-fastening calculations, the lashing, the ship’s stability and the planned weather route. The surveyor stands on the quay for the lift of a heavy single piece and signs off the securing before the ship sails. A good broker answers the surveyor’s questions before the ship is firmly nominated.

Securing and lashing are engineering work. The lashing plan decides whether the cargo arrives intact. It draws on how the weight spreads across the deck plating, point loads on the tanktop, the choice of dunnage and the weather route. Loading at several ports adds to the work. Modules may come from two or three different suppliers. The ship then has to be positioned and stowed so each port adds cargo without disturbing what is already on board.

We plan the lift while we choose the ship. Shore cranes are usually the cheaper option where the port has them and they are rated for the heaviest piece. Otherwise we fix a heavy-lift ship with its own cranes. Sometimes two booms work together in a tandem lift, with a lifting beam between them. A floating crane or jack-up rig may come alongside for the hardest pieces. Each option changes the price, the schedule and the technical risk. The cargo list alone rarely tells you which one is right.

How we fix a project voyage

A project fixture takes time. The fleet is small, every cargo is one of a kind, and the work runs from reviewing drawings to inland delivery at each end. Expect four to eight weeks from inquiry to sailing, for predictable reasons. Few heavy-lift ships trade on any one route. The carrier has to clear the cargo technically in advance. Cranes and berths have to be booked at both ports. Road or rail legs need route surveys. Loading at several ports, or a tight weather window, can push this to ten or twelve weeks. Here is the sequence we run from inquiry to discharge.

Our work continues after the ship sails. We keep in touch with the MWS surveyor during the voyage. We watch the weather route where the carrier or insurer requires a set track. We also prepare for arrival at the discharge port. That means shore cranes or the ship’s own cranes for discharge, the receiving berth (arranged with the agent), trailers or modular transporters for the inland leg, and customs papers for oversized cargo. Out-of-gauge cargo often needs permits, escorts and route surveys, and the paperwork must be ready before the ship arrives. We stay on the job through discharge, demobilisation and final delivery. Send us the cargo list and ports and we will start the technical work.

Recent project: five sailings to Linden, Guyana

We moved about 17,000 tonnes of bagged and drummed road-building materials from Colombia to Linden, Guyana, in five sailings on geared ships (ships with their own cranes). Cement came from Barranquilla, quicklime from Cartagena and asphalt products from Barrancabermeja. We consolidated all of it at Cartagena before loading. Our desk designed the lifting gear. We fixed a ship sized for the old Demerara bridge and the river’s tidal draft. Read the Linden case study.

What clients ask first