38,000 tonnes of equipment for Shreveport, La., plant sails from Germany

Alexander Global Logistics has moved its first shipment of a 38,000-tonne tube mill from Germany to the U.S. The new steel tube mill is being built by Benteler International, an Austrian steel company, in Shreveport, La.

The overdimensional cargo was loaded at Bremerhaven for shipment to the Port of Houston in Texas, Carago Equipment Experts CEE said in a statement on behalf of its Bremen-based member.

At Houston, the cargo was discharged and loaded onto trucks for the journey to Shreveport, a distance of about 260 miles.

In addition to the breakbulk cargo, AGL also handled 1,000 containers for the tube mill over a period of four months. The work included pre-carriages, port-handlings, seafreight, documentation, customs clearance and inspections by Alexander’s in-house surveyors.

Benteler International last fall began construction on the first phase of the US$975 million plant at the Port of Caddo-Bossier in Shreveport. This phase consists of a hot-rolling seamless steel tube facility and will be completed in the third quarter of 2015. A second phase will includes a steel mill with an electric arc furnace, due to open in 2020. When complete, the project will span 1.35 million square feet on 330 acres at the port and have the capacity to produce 320,000 tons of steel tube product annually.

*NEWS SOURCE