The project started construction in Q 4 2020, with the first containers arriving in Sydney port & delivered to the site just in time for Christmas, and it had its first energy generation targeted and successfully achieved in August 2021.

Hellmann Renewable Energy Logistics and Hellmann Project Cargo Australia supported both customers, Bouygues Construction Australia Pty Ltd and Canadian Solar MSS Australia Pty Ltd, through the various steps of the supply chain, from arrival at Sydney port through to tailgate or depot unpacks and staging for delivery to site, with additional support on arranging international airfreight and sea freight movements for selected suppliers.

Whilst being beyond proud for being chosen as preferred supplier by both customers, straight from the beginning we knew that this project was going to be like no other we have managed. This was a major project starting in a “post-pandemic” world, where the challenges posed by Covid-19 related Supply-Chain disruptions are now well known to all our customers.

Shipping delays, lack of visibility over transshipment timelines, and doubling up of shipment over the same vessels (to name a few) resulted in some weeks when Hellmann Project Cargo managed an influx of +200 x 40’ containers arriving into Sydney port.

Add to that: Sydney port congestion, delays in getting container availability from the wharf, Sydney de-hire depots often full and unable to accept empty containers (thus filling up space at our depot and creating sub-normal workflow conditions), all at the same time as Shipping Lines reducing the free time available on containers and threatening mounting detention costs but not always proactively providing alternative de-hire depots to the full depot. Suffice to say our team had their hands full for a while!

The Suntop Project will be forever in our memory as:

• a project of true partnership, where collaboration across companies & parties truly took on a whole new meaning, and where everyone had to pull together to ensure the final result could be achieved
• a project of  weekly conference calls and multiple daily catch-up calls, as Covid restrictions made it at the time impossible both for our Project Team and also our Customers to be in Sydney, at our unpack depot, or visiting the Solar Farm Site
• a project of achievement and pride, with close to 1400 Deliveries in just over 6 months and averaging +15 trailer deliveries per day. 

We would like to take this time to thank our customers, Bouygues Construction Australia and Canadian Solar MSS Australia, for choosing Hellmann Worldwide Logistics Pty. Ltd. as their project partner in this incredible journey.

A huge thank you also to our long-time partner, AST Services Pty Ltd, for managing the physical flow of the goods, through warehouse/ unpack/ delivery. Thank you also to our Hellmann offices overseas, in particular in France, Austria, and the Czech Republic for managing very critical shipments from the origin. We could not have made it without all of you.

Ilaria Giovannetti, Shaun Sponneck, and Daniel Haydon from the Project Cargo Australia team look forward to many more of these fantastic partnership journeys together!

Please do get in touch with the undersigned for any new and exciting Solar project in your pipeline!