These are to be used in the Pilbara desert region of Western Australia in the "South Flank" iron ore mine, one of the largest mining projects in the world with an investment of 3.6 billion euros. The engineers from thyssenkrupp Mining Technologies are assembling the modules with a total weight of 90,000 freight tons into two stackers and a reclaimer. The fully autonomous machines will be able to transport around 20,000 tons of iron ore per hour.

Thorsten Meincke, DB Schenker Board Member for Air and Ocean Freight: "We are proud that the world's leading manufacturers of industrial equipment trust us at DB Schenker for extraordinary special transports like this one. Our Global Projects & Industry Solutions team has once again proven its ability to deliver reliably, safely and on time."

Zoran Matijevic, Project Director South Flank at thyssenkrupp Mining Technologies: "South Flank is a flagship project in every respect. With the size of the machines, thyssenkrupp is setting new standards in technology, logistics and construction. We have achieved 90 percent project progress ahead of schedule and are looking forward to an equally successful completion and handover to the customer."

With 25 experts from DB Schenker Global Projects & Industry Solutions in Perth, the project was planned and implemented over a period of two years. The gigantic modules were transported 1770 kilometers on three ships from the Western Australian naval facility in Henderson to Port Hedland. There they were loaded onto special heavy-duty hydraulic trucks and transported overland to the mine 350 kilometers away in the Pilbara region. The convoys of trailer combinations, some of which were 120 meters long, passed 27 bridges and five level crossings.

The stackers and reclaimers will move around the iron ore mine on a total of 112 wheels. The two stackers are each 106 meters long, 40 meters high and weigh a total of 2,800 metric tons. The bucket wheel has a diameter of more than 12 meters.

DB Schenker is currently transporting further megamodules for the iron ore mine and the 23-kilometer overland conveyor system planned there. So far, 380,000 freight tons have been transported to Port Hedland on eleven special heavy-duty vessels over a distance of 7,150 kilometers from various locations around the world. The temperature difference on this route was occasionally around 60 degrees Celsius.