Cargo particulars and task
Our customer needed to move furnace steel fabrications from Kolkata, India to Marston, Missouri, USA. The shipment combined oversized components and smaller fabricated parts, with sea freight to Houston followed by inland delivery to the project site.
The confirmed container arrangement was one 40-foot flat-rack and one 40-foot open-top. The flat-rack accommodated the over-width steelwork, while the open-top carried the companion cargo in gauge. ENKEL coordinated origin preparation, the ocean booking and the US handling and road stages.
Solution
We developed the container plan around the cargo inspection and revised loading information in India. The final arrangement reduced the proposed equipment requirement to two containers, rather than retaining the larger initial plan.
At destination, the cargo was taken to a handling yard and transloaded from the sea containers onto flatbed road trailers. This allowed the final leg from the Houston area to Missouri to use suitable road equipment, with the oversized steelwork and companion items dispatched as two truckloads.
Challenges
Special container equipment required more preparation than a standard box shipment. Cargo inspection, the loading plan, dimensions and carrier acceptance had to be coordinated before equipment release and stuffing. ENKEL also worked through shipping-document and consignee-verification requirements with the customer and the parties handling the shipment.
The US stage required a separate plan for terminal collection, yard handling, transloading and interstate road delivery. The receiving team needed arrival updates so it could arrange people and equipment to unload the steelwork. Local truck availability ahead of the Thanksgiving period added another scheduling constraint.
What was done
Following the origin inspection and booking amendments in August 2025, the two containers were stuffed and prepared for sailing. ENKEL coordinated the sea shipment from Kolkata to Houston and the documents needed for the destination stages.
In November, after the destination customs release was confirmed, we coordinated collection and yard handling in the Houston area. The flat-rack steelwork and the open-top cargo were transferred to road trailers, with loading photographs used to track preparation for the inland journey.
Result
On 21 November 2025, the customer’s site team confirmed that both trucks had arrived in Marston. The delivery photograph shows the oversized steelwork at the receiving site, completing the transport scope from India through the US port and onward by road.
The project combined flat-rack and open-top container shipping, destination transloading and final road delivery in one coordinated movement. The container plan and the inland delivery plan were treated as connected stages, each suited to the cargo and the handling requirements.
Shipping furnace components, steel fabrications or oversized machinery? Explore our flat-rack and open-top container shipping services or contact ENKEL Project Logistics with your cargo dimensions and route.