Höegh Autoliners vessel – Höegh London – has delivered a rail carriage from Kobe in Japan to the port of Tyne in the UK for onward delivery to the Hitachi Rail Europe plant in County Durham, UK.
The part assembled train carriage, which will be used for training purposes, travelled for 52 days and 12,880 nautical miles on the 229m-long carrier to get to the port of Tyne’s Höegh Northern Terminal.
"The port of Tyne has been working with Hitachi Rail, Höegh and NSA UK [a terminal operator, part of the Nissan Carrier Group] to ensure that this shipment goes smoothly,” said Andrew Moffat, the port’s CEO. "As the UK's number one port for vehicle exports the port regularly receives large car carriers arriving directly from Japan and has long established relationships with automotive and construction plant manufacturers, including Nissan, Volkswagen, Renault, Komatsu and Audi."
The carriage will become Hitachi’s training unit, and will be used to help train manufacturing staff, with apprentices, technicians and engineers using it to learn how to build trains. The 26m long carriage will be stored at the Höegh Northern Terminal, one of the three car terminals at the port, before it is eventually transported to Hitachi’s training facility.
Graeme Wardhaugh, General Manager at NSA UK, said: "Our experience of working with the Renault Nissan Alliance and other companies such as Hitachi Construction Machinery has allowed NSA and Höegh Autoliners to develop the required skill base which these global companies require to support their logistics requirements."
