Page 8 - Port of Hamburg Magazine 02.24

PAGE 08 ALL-PURPOSE PORT PORT OF HAMBURG MAGAZINE 2/24
UNIKAI handles around 150,000 vehicles a year; half new and half used.
Hartmut Wolberg
managing director at UNIKAI Lagerei- und Speditionsgesellschaft
dumper truck like this one, you can putacarorvan ontopofit–it’s really efficient,” says Wolberg.
The managing director heads towards the new ve- hicle department and passes by a number of BMW SUVs, all imported from South Africa for the Ger- man market. A transporter for eight cars approach- es the terminal. Freshly manufactured export vehi- cles also arrive on the four railway tracks at the site. UNIKAI handles all new vehicles that Mercedes and VW ship via the Port of Hamburg. Wolberg drives to the brand-new Liebherr cranes that get to the terminal on their own axles: “That’s high-tech – our employees need to be qualified to use them.” They receive regular training at the company.
Every year, UNIKAI handles around 150,000 vehi- cles, half of which are new and the other half used. Some of the new vehicles are packed in containers. “We put the vehicles on pallets and lash them in place. We then move the pallets into the container,”
Wolberg clarifies. However, for the most part the ve- hicles are driven inside the ship via a ramp or loaded on trailers. The port workers need to be adept with spanners and tension chains to double up individual- ly delivered parts before they go on board, or to se- cure cargo on deck using belts. This work can be seen on the almost 300-metre-long ACL ro-ro con- tainer ship, which runs a weekly service to North America.
Carefully, Wolberg drives the van onto the lower deck, where there are crates of cargo that are too large or heavy for containers. The made-to-measure crates are constructed by professional carpenters in the adjacent lashing hall that spans 5,000 square metres.Secured for the voyage on roll trailers, they are strapped to lashing points recessed into the deck floor. “No-one else takes care of these kinds of trans- port operations at the Port of Hamburg,” stresses Wolberg. He points out another speciality outside: Siemens, Bombardier and Alstom insist on having new engines and railcars carefully pulled onto trail- ers, instead of using a crane. “This means we have to modify the trailers and weld tracks onto them. We have developed a system that allows us to pull rail- cars and locomotives directly onto the trailer from the track.”
© HHLA/Nele Martensen
© HHLA/Michael Zapf