English - Nooteboom Giants on the Road Magazine English - Nr. 3 - 2016 | Page 27

REPORT ■  The Nooteboom trailers are used in Qatar for all kinds of different loads QATAR INVESTS IN THE INFRASTRUCTURE During recent years Qatar has shown strong industrial and economic growth. This growth is accompanied by impressive investment in the infrastructure. For Aertssen Transport the Orbital Highway Project is a first. Sam Aertssen, Managing Director of Aertssen Transport: “Our drivers will transport no less than 2,168 concrete bridge sections from the production site to the location where they are to be installed. The heaviest bridge section weighs 92 tonnes. Once they reach their destination, the crane division takes over. The thousands of bridge components that are needed for the construction of 22 interchanges are put in place with crawler cranes. Spread across the project AMS has six Hitachi SCX2800-2 crawler cranes in operation and a few smaller cranes. The smaller cranes will provide additional support during the later stages of the project.” AERTSSEN IN QATAR Sam Aertssen: “We have been active in the Middle East for about ten years already and at the beginning of 2016 we also started with abnormal transport. At the moment we have eight combinations running. The work is so extensive that our vehicles are often in use for most of the day and night. The 7-axle semi low-loader of Nooteboom has already proved itself to be up to the job. With this Nooteboom semi-trailer we transport concrete bridge sections as well as machinery, steel structures, ballast for our cranes and crane bodies. We also have a few local trailers but then you can see the huge difference in quality compared with our Nooteboom trailers. When it comes to quality the Nooteboom trailers are market leaders. Therefore we have a wide range of Nooteboom semi-trailers in our fleet, from 3-axle semi low-loaders to the Mega Windmill Transporter.” Various divisions of the Aertssen Group are active in Qatar. The Construction & Infra branch has been operating under the name Gulf Earth Moving (GEM) since 2006. GEM specialises in earthmoving. The crane division (since 2011) and the transport division (since 2016) operate under the name Aertssen Machinery Services (AMS). The various divisions of Aertssen are working on several projects in Qatar, including the stadiums for the football World Cup in 2022, the new Metro, the Hamad Port and other infrastructure and steel construction projects. In 2006 Qatar was the first international branch for Aertssen, by now the group is also active in the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Kuwait. From those branches Aertssen operates in several other countries in the Middle East. The strength of Aertssen lies in ensuring there is good cooperation and communication between the various divisions. This has helped the company to grow in Belgium and this formula seems to work in Qatar too. It’s the workforce of Aertssen who, with their expertise and enthusiasm, contribute to achieving excellent results. In order to support further growth, in Belgium and several other countries, the Aertssen Group is looking for new personnel. After all, the Aertssen motto is: People, Power and Passion to build on. ■ Aertssen Transport moves all kinds of machinery for their sister companies in Qatar ■   27