Wallenius Delivers 100,000th Deere Unit At Galveston

Earlier this year, Woodcliff Lake, N.J.-based Wallenius Lines' M7S Aida delivered the 100,000th Deere & Company unit at the Port of Galveston. The unit, a special tractor, was driven aboard Aida in Antwerp, Belgium, by Richard Ruf, general manager of Deere Tractor Works, Mannheim, Germany.

According to Ernest Connor, general manager of the Port of Galveston, "Galveston is the Gulf of Mexico operations center for Wallenius Lines, and because of Wallenius, Galveston is the leading Gulf port for mobile machinery." With the shipment, Wallenius Lines and Deere & Co. marked a milestone in their business relationship. Deere & Co., the Illinoisbased manufacturer of agricultural machinery, has been shipping tractors on Wallenius' vessels for three decades. Units manufactured at the Mannheim work factory are transported on the Rhine River to Antwerp, where they are driven aboard RoRos destined for the U.S. The Port of Galveston is located 30 minutes from the open sea at the mouth of Galveston Bay, and has facilities capable of handling all types of cargo, including containers, import and export dry bulks, breakbulk commodities and a variety of mobile machinery.