Case Studies...

Client: Banlaw Afrique Sarl

Contract: Procure and deliver over US$500,000 of critical supplies

Location: Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso, West Africa

Banlaw Afrique Sarl is contracted to build the infrastructure for a new gold mine at Inata on the edge of the Sahara desert in Burkina Faso. Work on site has to be completed before the onset of the rain season in July. With daytime temperatures at the site exceeding 56 degrees centigrade, tyres which are already in short supply world wide, suffer extreme stress and need frequent replacement.

Containerised sea freight from Europe to Burkina Faso takes up to eight weeks as the goods have to be transited through an African seaboard country (Cote d' Ivoire, Ghana or Togo with their associated complex paperwork) before reaching land-locked Burkina Faso. This meant that chartered airfreight offered a very viable solution and H-Logistics was contracted to fly the essential supplies directly into the country in a specially commissioned Airbus 330.

The essential spares, components, earthmover tyres and vehicle supplies were secured from across Europe and the U.S. and consolidated at Doncaster Airport. In all, we loaded 35 tonnes of critical parts overnight before the aircraft left on a 9-hour flight to Ouagadougou - including a refuelling stop at Tripoli, Libya.

On arrival in Burkina Faso, with customs clearance pre-arranged locally by SDV International Logistics, the aircraft was unloaded overnight before the cargo made the final 240 km. journey to Inata.

"Thanks to H-Logistics the full consignment was transported from Yorkshire to our project , 20 kilometres south of the Mali border, in an incredible 48 hours."

Richard Levack, managing director of Banlaw Afrique Sarl