The Kiel Canal (Nord-Ostsee-Kanal - NOK) is a 98 km long channel that links the North Sea (Brunsbüttel) to the Baltic Sea (Kiel-Holtenau).
An average of 280 nautical miles (460 km) is saved by using the Kiel Canal instead of going around the Jutland Peninsula.

Kazakhstan, Morocco, Ukraine, Venezuela, Argentina, Mexico, Turkey, Qatar, Vietnam and Jordan are the nations that grow better in the trades. The top ten has as its source an authoritative report just published. The BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) were the head of the group but the nations mentioned above are now ready to join them.

In particular, we are noting the nations of the CIS (former USSR). Kazakhstan, among others, continues to rise in the rankings in 2013 climbing 7 positions. Also, Ukraine has grown significantly.

Ifa is ready. The new website is a witness: our company is redesigning its business rules of engagement for its current, future and potential clients by providing its thirty years Know How to accompany cargos to and from the areas where it is most established and flourishing trade. Here, you will find a testimony of how we dealt with shipments in the CIS.

IFA - Business Partner

IFA is positioned as a bridgehead for new business developments detecting growth trends relating to certain areas of the world and the real, potential or perceived extent of absorption of products or goods.

For IFA customer satisfaction is essential, even when the demands made are far from trivial: send six crates of about 45 tons each 17mt in length, 2.39mt in width and 3.04mt in height to be delivered at the same time as 10 X 40-ft containers loaded with spare parts all of which needed to travel and arrive in Murmansk, more than 4,500 km from Italy.

Delivery time to destination was set by the customer at 20/25 days.
The solution chosen for economy and reliability, regardless of the time of year, was the railway.

After informing the representatives of the Italian and foreign railways of the sizes of the load a train, specifically dedicated for this transport, was made available.
At the Ukrainian border (where the goods were transshipped from European wagons to Russian wagons) a train carriage was added to carry the escort personnel up to the final destination.

IFA focused on the need to speed up transport and transit, whilst ensuring a problem free journey effecting the delivery of the goods documentation directly to the receiver.

IFA manages large volumes of reefer transport or individual shipments and shipments of different units with individual loading annually. A representative example is a shipment of N°35 40' High Cube Reefer containers, a total of 875 tons of frozen meat to Luanda, capital of Angola.

The approach to this type of shipment initially focused on research of the most reliable maritime carrier (shipping line) able to provide the quantitative equipment required for a single boarding (35 * 40 'hcrf), offering the requested transit time and freight conditions (sea freight) adequate for the shipment volume.
It was also essential to identify the ideal transporter to ensure accuracy and precision in meeting the deadlines required by Customs, the"SGS" officer and the official veterinarian at the time of loading at the factory.
Compliance with the load program ensured fluidity in the management of the entire organization process of the exporter avoiding porterage and extra goods handling costs.
All the above was organized and coordinated in order to meet the tight timescales of the negotiated credit documentation (loading subject to letter of credit). To this end the procedure for the issuance of Bills of Lading and other necessary documentation was undertaken well in advance of the traditional timescales.
The shipment of 875 tonnes of frozen meat with IFA seemed easy!

An oversized 44-tonne reactor containing class A 2.2 IMO 1066 nitrogen, destination Nizhnekamsk - Tatarstan.

All shipments are unique and special but when you add in factors such as large sizes and shape plus dangerous goods they can be really problematic.
On average IFA manages 4-5 requests for exceptional transport per month.

The case presented describes the delivery of a very wide and very heavy reactor weighing 44 tonnes destined for Nizhnekamsk - Tatarsta.

Apart from the very large size the other critical consideration was the presence of nitrogen (IMO class 2.2 UN 1066) inside the reactor circuit as protection against possible oxidation during navigation.
Shipment was carried out using combined transport:

• Exceptional road transport from factory to port of export
• RO RO ship
• Exceptional transport from arrival port to final destination with a transit time of 20 days at sea and a road journey of approximately 2000 km.

In order to organize the transportation it was necessary to coordinate a number of personnel:

• The exporter with the transport vehicle regarding readiness of the goods and their on-road Authority permits
• The shipping company and the terminal which undertook loading onto the vessel for acceptance of the reactor containing dangerous goods and its handling during loading and shipment
• Our correspondent at destination ready to receive the goods in St. Petersburg and to arrange onward transport taking into consideration restrictions and limitations of exceptional transport in Russia during the winter

In this way IFA was able to guarantee delivery taking into account the intrinsic criticality of this type of transport.

Sea transport of lime fruit requires a transport solution with temperature controlled containers suitable for foodstuffs so that their properties and quality are maintained.
IFA handles at least one reefer container import per week with a total of about 15,000 kg of limes each time.

When the containers are offloaded readiness is essential in order to coordinate customs operations in the shortest possible time and to organize subsequent collection and delivery of the reefer container to destination using temperature controlled vehicles which maintain the required temperature inside the container until delivery. Even the choice of the qualified transporter is therefore crucial.

In recent years the demand for exotic products from Italian Wholesalers has been gradually increasing. IFA has responded to this increase in demand through the selection of a South American agent whom it supports locally allowing it to manage shipments and deliver exotic fruit to the Italian market and beyond.

The Russians like "Makarony", we know!

IFA has managed consolidated traffic for over 10 years for the Russian market carrying not less than 250 tons of pasta per week which are delivered to major Russian wholesalers.

The requirement of both the retailer and the consumer is to have a product on the shelves intact in all its organoleptic qualities and on time.
Therefore, in order to export the pasta, four maritime shipping companies, who have shown the greatest ability in meeting the transportation requirements such as a fleet of appropriate equipment with certain and regular timescales, have been selected. The volume of traffic per shipment/loading is then shared between them, coordinating the weekly rotations according to the customer's delivery requirements.

The skill of IFA is to make difficult supply chain management simple for its Clients.

Organizing shipments of industrial plants and machinery over long distances must always be weighed against the costs of transport methods and the degree of security that is necessary to ensure delivery of the goods without any damage and in the timescales required.
Five crates of machinery, some exceptionally large, to be sent a distance of 10,000 km falls into this type of transport complexity.

In these cases the railway represents a valid solution.
The destination of Krasnojarsk can be reached from Italy by conventional truck in about 15 days (longer during the winter). By rail it takes 30 days, however this time is ensured throughout the whole year allowing you to manage, even during the most climatically difficult conditions, shipments of oversized goods where other modes of transport could have considerable difficulties.

Critical success factors that were considered and which allowed delivery to destination without any problems were:

• Selection of the most suitable type of wagon for the type of load
• Thorough study of weight distribution inside the wagon
• The professionalism of everyone involved, including those staff who assumed responsibility for securing the goods according to the specifications required by the railways of the various countries of transit.