A special journey for refinery equipment – Kroustalelis Special Transport places its trust in Goldhofer heavy-duty modules

In order to transport a 67-meter-long naphtha splitter and an equally long deisohexanizer from the production facility of EKME S.A. in Thessaloniki to the local port for onward shipment, the Greek special transport company Kroustalelis used a Goldhofer THP/LTSO heavy-duty combination as a trailer combination.

The Greek company EKME sa is a Pressure Equipment (Vessels, Reactors, Heat Exchangers) fabricator and a Modular Units & Skids supplier, operating as a construction, and maintenance services contractor primarily in the Oil and Gas, Petrochemicals and Energy sectors. The company’s products are shipped by road or by sea via the nearby port of Thessaloniki. Last autumn, when two oversized and very heavy components were to be delivered to a refinery in Azerbaijan, Kroustalelis Special Transport, which is also based in Thessaloniki, handled the first stage of the journey to the port 14 kilometers away.

In order to avoid disrupting rush-hour traffic, the oversized cargos were moved to their initial destination on two weekends. In view of their enormous weight and length, the Greek heavy haul experts decided to transport the two huge vessels – length 67 m, width 5.85 m, weight 190 t – using a 16-axle trailer combination (8+8). The Goldhofer THP/LTSO is a heavy-duty module with an extremely low deck height and 205 mm tires. With the tractor, the gigantic rig had a total length of more than 77 meters – a challenging operation for the Kroustalelis team! With good planning, meticulous working and Goldhofer’s high-performance road transport equipment, however, Kroustalelis was able to complete the two journeys without a hitch, and the refinery components were shipped to Baku on schedule at the end of September.