“Ships for the Desert” project receives prestigious award

Silk Road Biz Award 2021 for Gebrüder Weiss / 35 dredgers delivered to Turkmenistan by truck on the New Silk Road

Nur-Sultan / Lauterach, October 1, 2021 – The Austrian Foreign Trade Centre Almaty (Kazakhstan) has presented Gebrüder Weiss with the Silk Road Biz Award 2021. The prize was awarded for successfully completing a major project in which Gebrüder Weiss transported 35 dredgers from the Netherlands to the eastern Turkmen city of Kerki. The dredgers, each weighing 90 tons, are used to keep rivers and canals free of sand and sediment deposits coming from the nearby Karakum Desert. The project, which lasted for a year, involved breaking down the dredgers into components and then transported on heavy load trucks via the New Silk Road to Turkmenistan.

Thomas Moser, Director and Regional Manager Black Sea/CIS at Gebrüder Weiss: “The award demonstrates that we are on the right track with our Central Asia strategy by including truck and railway transports along the New Silk Road in our portfolio at an early stage. The countries of Central Asia are becoming increasingly important for European exporters. Shippers and investors looking to develop new markets there can also draw on the country-specific expertise of our branches in Uzbekistan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and China.”

The panel of judges said: “Gebrüder Weiss has not only demonstrated the extent of its expertise relating to transports along the Silk Road, but it is also helping Turkmenistan to develop its water supply and agriculture on a sustainable basis. The Silk Road Biz Award 2021 therefore goes to Gebrüder Weiss in recognition of the skill shown in handling such a complex operation in a difficult environment. Congratulations!”

The series of transports to Turkmenistan completed last year in June is one of the largest projects handled by Gebrüder Weiss in the region to date. An average of eight heavy load and a total of 254 oversize transporters were used per dredger along the 7,000-kilometer route. After being dismantled, the components for each dredger had to be loaded in the exact order required for reassembly at the destination.

The dredgers are of existential importance for the Central Asian state’s population and agricultural operations. They safeguard the vital supply of water from the Amu Darya, keeping its canal and river courses free of sand deposits at all times.