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Longstanding cargo operator Swift Freight is well-recognised within the transport community. SFME catch up with its project cargo team to discuss the big issues surrounding the freight of outsize materials.

One of the toughest assignments to be handled by ocean freight vessels is the requirement to carry heavy or outsize cargo, and with the vast infrastructural developments currently being witnessed in the Middle East, it comes as no surprise that regional freight forwarders have often found themselves fulfilling requests for ever more logistically tricky transport operations.

One such company is Swift Freight International, a regional leader in transportation and logistics since it was founded in 1989.

The company's Sea Air Model (SAM) is a market-leading concept that has certainly caught the eye of global logisticians, with many of the larger and more established companies following suit.

Swift Freight's outsize unit, Project Cargo, has now been operational for six years and its sizeable team stands ready to assist with the shipment of products as varied as offshore oil rig supplies and industrial turbines.

"In the last six years, Swift Freight's project cargo has handled different projects of various tonnage, measurements and dimensions," says Vincent Brank, executive director of Swift Freight Group.

"Some we have moved from manufacturing plants in the country of origin to the UAE, or sometimes even up to the site itself, where we also handle the installations."

Given the construction boom currently enveloping many of the GCC economies, what sort of trends are companies such as Swift seeing? "Because of the booming economy in the UAE, particularly Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the trend we observe is an increase in the import of equipment and machinery," explains Brank.

"We call this business Project Handling and Management and, as suppliers, we feel the pressure and struggle to meet requirements for setting up major infrastructure in a short span of time and, as projects and new plans are laid out, project cargo is thus growing from strength to strength.

"More and more companies are setting up base in Dubai to support the plans and be a part of the new development initiatives being laid down by the Dubai government," he adds.

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