Liebherr Nenzing overcame testing logistical challenges to deliver a pair of mobile harbour cranes to Umm Qasr in Iraq against the backdrop of mounting tension on the eve of the country’s elections.
Liebherr won the tender from the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA – representing the American civil administration) to supply two LHM 400 cranes in mid 2004. The cranes were bought for use by the Iraqi Port Authority (IPA).
Safety and insurance concerns meant that they could not be delivered directly, but had to make an intermediate stop in Ras Al Khaimah. There, the semi-erected cranes (the jib and some smaller parts were transported separately) had to be carefully rolled onto a smaller barge with the assistance of local people engaged by Liebherr’s agent Naran General Trading. Liebherr reports that ‘Naran turned out to be highly valuable for its contacts with the CPA as well as with the IPA, and was also very helpful to Liebherr’s service engineers during the entire assembly process up to the hand-over of the cranes.’
Finding qualified service engineers willing and able to volunteer to go to Iraq on the eve of the elections was difficult, Liebherr says, especially because the security situation was tense so close to the elections. In the end, the nearby British army camp, used by Liebherr service engineers for accommodation, meant that the port was one of the best guarded areas in the Umm Qasr region.
The desperate need for the cranes was proven before they were even officially handed over. During the one-week training period they were used to unload 17 barges
