The Felixstowe-based team of Allseas Global Logistics is expecting an even busier year in 2015 following the company’s announcement of a comprehensive new network of offices and door-to-door services for key markets in Central Asia. FELICITY LANDON reports.

UK-based project forwarding, freight and logistics specialist Allseas Global Logistics has unveiled a significant expansion of its network in the Central Asia region.

The network will now include fully staffed offices in Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey, a joint venture in Pakistan, a partnership agreement in Kuwait and Iraq and the continued expansion of Allseas’ highly successful Dubai office.

Des Nott, Allseas’ group project manager, who based in Felixstowe and will oversee the new network, said: “This expansion has involved 18 months of detailed planning and discussions.

“We have focused on finding the right locations and the right people, and on creating a vision for the whole region. As a result, we can offer customers a complete door-to-door service, including full Customs brokerage and cargo tracking, to and from some very challenging destinations.

“Underlining all of this will be the strong Allseas brand. We are known for our reliability and in Central Asia we guarantee the same Allseas philosophy – hassle-free logistics.”

The new network had been created in response to increasing demand for high-level logistics support in the region, said Mr Nott. “There are some incredibly big projects going on in the region, including infrastructure and oil & gas developments,” he said. “A lot of cargo movement is happening. We have a good name in the industry and we are going to bring our unique approach to these markets.”

The door-to-door offering was very different to the services generally offered in the region, he said. “At present, it is mainly a fragmented process of different operators using the same pool of hauliers and equipment. We will create tailor-made solutions for our clients, offering not only the best service but also the best price.

“We will provide the equipment door-to-door – open tops, flat racks and dry containers – or unpack cargo from containers for onward delivery from key points.”

Allseas will have in-house staff coverage for cargo heading into Aghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Kurdistan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Southern Russia, Syria, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

The company, which celebrated its 10th anniversary last year, has grown rapidly since its beginnings in a tiny office in Manchester. It has a strong reputation for its expertise in handling project, heavy lift and out-of-gauge cargoes, as well as FCL/LCL (full container load/less than container load) movements on a worldwide basis.

Although Felixstowe is best known as the UK’s biggest container port, it is also very important to Allseas as a key export port for some huge pieces of kit.

This year Allseas has played a pivotal role in the Northern Cyprus Water Supply Project, in which an 80-km long, 1.6-metre diameter pipeline has been installed to supply 19.8million gallons a year of water for drinking and irrigation to Northern Cyprus from southern Turkey.

The pipeline is suspended at a depth of 250 metres below the water surface, held in place by 132 giant buoyancy modules manufactured by Trelleborg Offshore in Skelmersdale, Lancashire.

Allseas was appointed to transport the buoyancy modules – each one weighing eight tonnes and measuring three metres diameter and 3.6 metres in length – from the factory in the north of England to the project assembly site at the port of Tasucu, in Turkey.

This involved loading them on to specialist trucks at Skelmersdale, transport by road to Felixstowe, loading on to flatracks and shipping to the Turkish port of Mersin. At Mersin, Allseas unloaded the buoys and assisted with Customs and other documentation, and reloaded the buoys to road trucks for the journey to Tasucu commercial port. At Tasucu, Allseas was responsible for unloading the buoys, including sourcing cranes for the task.

And demand for Allseas’ specialist expertise has continued to the end of the year. Mark Binge, Allseas’ group commercial manager, also based in Felixstowe, said: “We have had five shipments leaving Felixstowe in the week before Christmas, for a local supplier of packaging machinery – a mixtures of break bulk, out-of-gauge and containerised cargo.

“The largest unit was 47 tonnes and measured 13.5 x 2.6 x 2.7 metres. These shipments were going to China, Mexico, Turkmenistan and Chile – certainly ‘global logistics’!”