4 minutes - magazine 01 | 2025
Nothing is impossible
Kazakhstan is one of the countries with the most resources in the world. Many cranes are also required for the construction and maintenance of conveyor systems. More than a hundred mobile and crawler cranes from our Liebherr plant in Ehingen are in use in this vast Central Asian country.
LTM 1650-8.1 on new routes to Kazakhstan
Recently, Tengizchevroil, one of Kazakhstan’s leading oil companies, added the powerful LTM 1650-8.1 to its fleet. Transporting the crane over 4,000 kilometres to its destination proved to be a significant logistical challenge.
Separate freight: The telescopic boom starts its 4,000 kilometre journey on its own low-loader.
“In the past, delivering our cranes to Kazakhstan followed a multimodal process. The mobile crane and its equipment from Ehingen were transferred onto broad-gauge wagons, ensuring a smooth journey by rail to Kazakhstan,” explains Jens Bachmann, Crane Shipment Team Leader.
“This time we had to find an alternative to the usual route and explore new transport options,” adds his colleague, Melanie Spomer. “We worked closely with our forwarding company, CIS+ International GmbH, to analyze various possibilities and ultimately identified a viable solution. While more complex than the previous approach, it allowed us to ensure successful delivery.”
Dismantled: LTM 1650-8.1 is ready for departure at the Ehingen plant. From left to right: Jens Bachmann, Melanie Spomer, Alexandr Gritsov, Charlotte Liebherr.
Basic machine reduced to 60 tonnes
“We wanted to use rail and ship as much as possible. The focus is on environmental protection and economic efficiency,” says Jens Bachmann. “However, because the size of the LTM 1650-8.1 does not allow transport by rail, we separated the basic machine and the equipment.”
It proved to be beneficial to completely remove the boom of the LTM 1650-8.1 to reduce the weight of the basic machine to 60 tonnes. As this option frequently has benefits when transporting the 8-axle vehicle, it has already been taken into account in the design. The basic machine was transported on its own wheels to Antwerp and then onto a ship that set course across the Atlantic and the Mediterranean to Liman near Istanbul. It was loaded onto a low-loader at this Turkish port. The journey then continued on piggyback on roads through Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan to Baku. There at the port, the entire team boarded a ferry across the Caspian Sea to Kazakhstan. The final kilometres to the destination of Kulsary were covered by low-loaders with the basic crane on the road.
On roll trailer: At the port of Konstanza, the equipment components are waiting for the ferry.
The crane equipment takes a different route
“We decided to take a different approach for the equipment,” explains Melanie Spomer. “A total of 19 lorries drove from Ehingen and Ahaus at the Dutch border, where the crane ballast was collected, through Germany, Austria, Hungary and Romania to the port of Constanta. There, the equipment was transferred onto roll trailers that drove it to a ferry. The journey then went by ship across the Black Sea to Poti. At this Georgian seaport, the equipment was loaded onto railway carriages, which took the valuable freight to Baku in Azerbaijan. The complete carriages were moved onto a railway ferry at the port there, which crossed the Caspian Sea and released them back onto solid ground in Kazakhstan. Without reloading, the equipment was finally transported by rail to the customer in Kulsary.”
Broad gauge: On railway carriages through Asia.
Mission accomplished! “398 tonnes of crane and accessories arrived safely at the customerʼs location,” says Jens Bachmann happily. “We had to explore new options and everything worked out in the end. There is of course still room for improvement, but we have learnt a lot.”
“It has once again been demonstrated that a good team can make the seemingly impossible possible. Thanks to our Shipment Department, our Forwarding Department, our Liebherr fitters in Azerbaijan who supported the loading of the equipment in Poti and to the fitters of our agent Caspian Kran Service LLP who set up the LTM 1650-8.1 at Tengizchevroil,” adds Alexandr Gritsov, who is responsible for sales in Kazakhstan at Liebherr.
This article was published in the UpLoad magazine 01 | 2025.
