The project involves moving five giant equipment weighing 1,700 tons across a distance of 17,600 km in five months from China to the Central Asian country which were loaded onto ships at a port in China on Sept. 23 to begin a long trek
The heavy equipment are being loaded onto ships at Zhangiagang harbor in China on Sept. 23 to begin a long trek to a natural gas and oil plant in Karshi City in Uzbekistan. (Photo: CJ Logistics)
President Park Keun-tae of CJ Korea Express Co.
CJ Logistics kicked off a project to move five giant pieces of plant equipment together weighing some 1,70 tons across a distance of 17,600 km over five months from China to Uzbekistan.
CJ Logistics said on Sept. 26 that its crews loaded the equipment for a natural gas and oil synthetic plant (GTL) being built in Karshi, Uzbekistan, at the Zhiangiagang harbor in China and started its long trek to the target city in the central Asian country on Sept. 23.
The catalyst equipment is 50.88 meters long and 8.72 meters tall and 8.6 meters in width, weighing 520 tons.
The equipment is Chinese-made and its parts have to be put together and connected together before being put into use in the plant. The equipment, other than the catalysts, included two separatist drums weighing 323 tons each and a refining tower weighting 77 tons.
The project is notable for its distance in addition to the total weight of the items.
The total distance from Zhangiagang to Karshi City in Uzbekistan will be covered by ship (15,567 km) over around a month. The equipment will be unloaded from trucks and then loaded onto cargo vessels in Constanta harbor in Romania and then reloaded onto trucks at the Kuric harbor in Kazakhstan at the end of November.
CJ Logistics will move the equipment on its own 220 oil-pressure trailer trucks to travel through Iraq, Turkey, and Turkmenistan. It will take 17 months to move them through Kazakhstan (534 km), and Uzbekistan (1,548 km), covering a distance of 2,089 km in total.
To move such huge equipment, officials of CJ Logistics said. ¡°You got to have the support of a global network and local authorities of the countries along the trail, in addition to know-how on civil engineering and construction.¡±
Hyundai Engineering is the main contractor for the huge project in Uzbekistan, UGTL. CJ Logistics is only participating in the project as a logistics firm.
CJ Logistics invested 480 million Chinese yuan renminbi ($72 million), equal to 3.42 percent of the company¡¯s equity capital, for a 50 percent share of Chinese logistics firm Shenzen Speedex Commercial Service, a subsidiary of leading Chinese home appliance firm TCL, according to an announcement from TCL.
Under the agreement, a Chinese holding unit of the South Korean shipping and logistics provider will form a joint venture with TCL, the third largest manufacturer of televisions worldwide.
According to TCL, CJ Logistics recorded a net profit of CNY288.4 million on CNY28.9 billion in revenues for the full year in 2015. TCL, on the other hand, posted a net loss of CNY5.8 million last year on revenues of CNY589 billion.
Analysts expect CJ Logistics to use the JV to expand further into the logistics market in China, first and foremost by securing TCL¡¯s global shipment volumes.
¡°CJ Logistics is likely to enter China¡¯s consumer-oriented delivery service market after acquiring Speedex.¡± Ha Joon-young, an analyst at HI Investment & Securities, told a local daily.
¡°The company¡¯s stock will maintain its price-to-earnings ratio as it is speeding up expansion in China.¡± the analyst added.