The Felbermayr Holding GmbH is headquartered in Wels, Austria, and according to its own information, is represented with 81 locations in 17 countries across Europe. The group currently employs approximately 3,300 specialists. The company specializes in special and heavy transportation, mobile crane and work platform rental, heavy lift handling, as well as high, deep, and water construction, and special foundation engineering, and also covers areas in the ancillary construction industry.
One of Felbermayr's largest transport projects to date is now on the agenda, which is scheduled to be completed in late summer 2025. This involves the delivery of all technical components for the Mintia gas and steam power plant in Romania.
Because by 2026, the Mintia coal power plant is to be converted into a gas and steam power plant. With an installed capacity of 1,700 megawatts, it will be the largest of its kind in the European Union upon commissioning.
Within a year, more than 34,000 freight tons of material - around 1,600 packages - were delivered for the project.
"The project was a major technical and logistical challenge because the power plant is more than 250 kilometers from all navigable waterways," explains Peter Niedermair-Auer, project manager of Felbermayr's project department in Wels. He adds, "All core competencies of the Felbermayr Group were required: inland waterway shipping, port transshipment, RoRo ship space, as well as road transport."
Delivery of the First Components
The project planning took just under a year, and in May and June 2024, the first larger components were transported to the power plant. Two gas turbines arrived disassembled by inland vessel from Berlin, were transshipped
in the port of Linz onto another inland vessel, and then transported to Budapest.
Loaded onto low loaders at the port of Csepel, they then proceeded to the Mintia power plant. According to Felbermayr, the gas turbines arrived in twelve packages each. The heaviest part weighed 150 tons - with a length of 13.7 meters and a width of 3.6 meters. Eight transports were necessary for each turbine.
In April 2025, the steam turbine was picked up by inland vessel from Mühlheim. It was transshipped in Linz onto another inland vessel and transported to Szeged, Hungary. Seven heavy transports and some accessory loads were necessary to deliver it dismantled to Mintia, Romania. The heaviest part weighed 150 tons with a width of six meters, a length of 9.90 meters, and a height of 3.90 meters.
Niedermair-Auer reports challenges such as old bridges and narrow village passages in Romania and Hungary: "Many static calculations and route checks had to be carried out in advance."
380-Ton Generators
At the beginning of 2025, the transport of the heaviest components occurred - all three generators weighed around 380 tons each and were delivered by ocean vessel from Charleston (USA) – two in February, one in May. They were transshipped at the PSA Breakbulk terminal in Antwerp, Belgium, onto an inland vessel and transported to the port of Linz. The handling was done by Haeger & Schmidt Logistics.
In Linz, the generators were loaded onto the so-called RoRo30 pusher barge. One of the two was already previously loaded onto a twelve-axle 3-file SPMT. Via the Danube and Tisza, the journey led to Tape in
Hungary. The SPMT with the first generator rolled off the ship via a RoRo ramp and continued through the town of Mako. Using a tower lift and strand jack system, the generator was lifted from the SPMT onto another transport vehicle at a transshipment point.
Road Transport in Hungary
After this, a roughly 270-kilometer-long route on the road across the border to the power plant in Mintia in Romania followed. According to the information, the total transport length was 100 meters, the width six meters, and the height 5.4 meters. The entire transport weighed a proud 770 tons.
According to Felbermayr, this was the largest road transport in Hungarian history. The organization was particularly challenging for the team from Bau-Trans Hungary. Multiple route checks with the road authority were necessary. Signs had to be dismantled, trees cut, and bridges supported.
313-Ton Transformers
In February, three large transformers with individual weights of up to 313 tons were transported by ocean vessel from China to Constanța, Romania, and from there via the Danube and Tisza to Tape, Hungary. They took the same route as the generators with the SPMT over the RoRo ramp to Mako.
At the transshipment point, one of them was loaded onto a side girder bridge. The other two transformers continued with new 24-axle Goldhofer THP/FT to Mintia. According to the information, the entire transport was 60 meters long, five meters wide, and 5.5 meters high and had a total weight of 466 tons.
Foundation Setting at the Power Plant
The Felbermayr Engineered Solutions division was responsible for bringing five of the six heavy components – generators and
transformers – directly onto the foundations after delivery. A 500-ton lifting framework was used for the two generators for the gas turbines, intended to reload them onto a 10-axle 4-file SPMT to reach the foundation. Using the lifting framework and a track of 36 running meters of rail, the foundation setting was then carried out.
However, the generator for the steam turbine could not be placed on the foundation upon arrival as it was not yet completed. It had to make an interim stop on a storage area until the foundation setting could take place.
How did the two transformers for the gas turbine reach the construction site? By 24-axle low loader. Subsequently, the heavy transport had to be positioned under the lifting framework. The transformers were pushed to the foundation using a 400-ton displacement system and set down on the foundation with climbing presses.
"As an additional challenge, the employees of Engineered Solutions had to bridge a three-meter-wide pit between the unloading point and the foundation with supports and beams," says Niedermair-Auer.
To set down the transformer for the steam turbine on the displacement carriers, the hydraulics of the side girder bridge came into play. One beam of the side girder bridge had to be dismantled for the transformer to take its final position. It was then pushed onto the foundation with the displacement train and set down with step lifters.
Multimodal Transport
"Thanks to our multimodal competence – by road, water, and rail – as well as our European network, we were able to successfully complete this complex project," says Peter Stöttinger, Managing Director of Felbermayr Transport-
