MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mammoet has been awarded the contract for the transportation of an 1800-ton reactor for the new PC ORLEN Lietuva facility in North-west Lithuania. Come August 2023, the 100-meter-long, 6.5-meter-wide and 10-meter-tall (vehicle sizing) transport configuration will be transferred approximately 150-kilometers on public roads from the Port of Klaipeda to the Mazeikiai refinery, said the company.
Once the unit arrives at the port, it will be lifted off the seagoing vessel and onto 88 axle lines of conventional trailers, which will then execute the operation from port to site. Therefore, with a piece of this size, the most challenging part is not selecting the equipment, but the preparing of route. For example, Mammoet requires tailored solutions to cross bridges and culverts or to maneuver a unit this long around tight corners – and it needs dozens of these custom solutions throughout the 150-kilometer route.
Having enjoyed a longstanding relationship with PC ORLEN Lietuva, including completing a heavy transport project along a similar route as far back as 2008, Mammoet was asked in 2019 to undertake a study to clarify potential routes for cargo of this size. This required Mammoet to review all options for transferring the reactor from the port to the oil refinery for PC ORLEN Lietuva to assess and then decide on the optimal transportation solution. After completing the study, Mammoet has now been awarded the contract for the transport job.
Mammoet Russia, Baltic and Finland Sales Director, Edvinas Ivanauskas, comments: “ORLEN Lietuva’s decision to collaborate with us directly on both the study and the job demonstrates confidence in our local knowledge and relationships, along with our heavy lift and transport expertise. Preparing a 150-kilometer route is highly complex, and we take it as a big compliment that ORLEN trusts us with this responsibility.” He continues: “At Mammoet, we expect this trust to grow further so that we can deliver even larger jobs for the company in the Baltics region."
As per MRC, Orlen Unipetrol (part of PKN Orlen), a major Czech producer of petrochemical products, will expand the capacity of its steam cracker in Litvinov (Czech Republic) by installing a new furnace. The new cracking unit will be built by Technip Energies in Zaluzi, the largest chemical plant in the Czech Republic, and is due to be commissioned in 2022. Orlen is investing over 700 mln Polish zlotys (Zl) in the project.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,047,100 tonnes in the first ten months of 2021, up by 17% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,226,530 tonnes in January-October 2021, up by 26% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymers (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding stat-copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.
Czech Orlen Unipetrol is a joint stock company that deals with oil refining and production of petrochemical products in the Czech Republic and Central Europe. It is one of the ten largest Czech companies in terms of revenue. The company was founded in 1994 and since 2004 has been part of PKN Orlen, which owns 94.05% of the shares in the company.
MRC