WEEK #20 – 2019

Dear Readers,

It is May 16th, Thursday and we are (hopefully) in your inbox once again.

Before, I start with my usual tirading about this and that, I am very excited to tell you all that Project Cargo Weekly is announcing the release of the PCW mobile app, on which you can find our weekly newsletters and all our interviews. The app also offers the option to search for past interviews and it is totally free of charge.

You can download the app from the play store for Android or the app store for iOS.

Please kindly download it, test it out and feel free to send me any feedback, good or bad, so that we can improve it if necessary. At a later stage we may allow brief ads in the app, so if you are interested please be quick and contact the undersigned. We will allow a max of four companies worldwide to place an ad in our app, just like we allow four ads in our weekly newsletter.

Now, on with the editorial. Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the AntwerpXL breakbulk conference. Visiting Belgium is always a real pleasure and one of the highlights in visiting this rather small European country is enjoying the food, wine, beer and, not least, chocolate. It simply seems that wherever you go and in whatever restaurant you spend your hard-earned euros, the food is generally of very high quality. Actually, some people have previously told me that the best French food in the world can, in fact, be found in Belgium. They have a great selection of beers, they know which wines are suitable for whatever you order, and they know how to make exquisite chocolate desserts. So, for those reasons among many more, I would hope there’ll be more than one AntwerpXL event a year going forward. To watch the show’s highlights, check this out.

AntwerpXL was a good conference. It is a kind of ‘restart’, as the traditional breakbulk Antwerp moved to Bremen two years ago and will likely (thanks to bidding, I suppose) stay there. As we at PCW always applaud healthy competition, we appreciate and support that there is an alternative back ‘home’ in Antwerp. Whether scale is the same as quality in terms of expos remains to be seen and here the jury is still out. However, I do find that both the management, availability, the whole IT system and its contact with visitors leading up to and after the AntwerpXL event is to be highly recommended. Cost is another factor of course, and there is a limit to how much expo organisers should be allowed to charge for a booth, but as we all know, business is business. We from Project Cargo Weekly will certainly be present at the next AntwerpXL expo that takes place on 21st-23rd April 2020.

Communication is key and I just bought the latest Huawei P30Pro mobile phone, not because my wife is from China, but because I am amazed by the sheer power of the zoom that this mobile’s camera has. Since I’m going on a ship trip at the end of June and this capability will be useful on the high seas, I thought it best to start learning about the phone well in advance. The developments in communication are incredible, with barcodes, scanning, tracking devices and whatnot becoming things to which we must all get accustomed. For example, I can track my son’s whereabouts, which is important as he is diagnosed with autism, meaning that he can sometimes be off in his ‘own world’. But of course, tracking can be used both for good and bad purposes. However, thinking to the US’s overt paranoia about what the Chinese might do with Huawei, I’d say that one shouldn’t throw stones while living in a glass (White)house. We only must ask Edward Snowden about his experiences with the US government on that matter. Perhaps competition is what the US is afraid of when it comes to Huawei and that China is increasingly shedding its copycat image. Let’s see what happens, but it’d be good for us all if the two biggest trading nations could shed the rhetoric and just get along. For further reference about the enormous opportunities (good and bad, I suppose) that the coming G5 network will provide, read this article.

Businesswise, today we first have an interview with a reputable law firm, based, as so many are, in London. Now, most of us generally prefer not to deal with lawyers, but for those of us who’ve been through several divorces and business disputes, we all know that having a good and competent lawyer can make all the difference. We then travel to Ningbo, China. It is a city just south of Shanghai with excellent port facilities and, although a bit in the shadow of Shanghai, it is certainly worth your while to consider talking to a solid project freight forwarder there, just as we have this week. Finally, we travel to Dalian, one of my favourite cities in Northeast China. After our intake of seafood and Maotai (rocket fuel), we speak to a local freight forwarder, whilst we are still coherent. Naturally, we provide you with trade intelligence and shipping news and finally round off our newsletter with a featured video, a featured photo and wise words, in case you didn’t find any above.

Until next time, I remain,

Yours sincerely,
Bo H. Drewsen
bo.drewsen@projectcargo-weekly.com

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LMA Legal, London, UK

Interview with

Dr. Miquel Roca
Managing Partner and Solicitor

We met at the AntwerpXL expo last week, Miquel. That should tell me that you are a maritime lawyer, but please tell us about what kind of law you practice. Do you have a special field of law in which you feel particularly experienced?

As a maritime lawyer, I specialise in all legal aspects of marine affairs. I advise my clients on charter parties, project cargo, heavy lift, logistics contracts, commercial contracts and disputes and of course, London Maritime Arbitration.

Ningbo Star Alliance Int. Logistics Co. Ltd, Ningbo, China

Interview with

Mr. Calvin Zheng
Managing Director

First, Calvin, can you tell us about the location of Ningbo in China? Also, Can you tell us about the port of Ningbo and its dealings? Most foreigners are only familiar with the port of Shanghai.

As you know, Shanghai will always be considered a big player in China, sharing in the best resources with the government’s support, so most foreigners know Shanghai as a big name in China via magazines and books. However, Ningbo has traditionally been one of the main deep-water ports in China, being a natural port and with a bigger capacity than any other for a long time. But since Shanghai took over Yangshan from Ningbo years ago, it has stood as one of the top ports in China. This has led to Ningbo losing some name recognition.

Dolphin Logistics Co. Ltd. Dalian, China

Interview with

Mr. Sangni Feng
General Manager

First, can you tell us when Dolphin Logistics was established? Also, who are the owners and are you part of a bigger group of companies or are you simply Dalian based?

Dolphin Group was founded in Taipei in 1995. Under the leadership of Mr. Kevin Cheng and after more than twenty years of development, the group, with Taipei as HQ, has over fifty branches covering many cities in China. Today, Dolphin group has more than 3,000 employees. So far, for seven consecutive years, Dolphin has won first place in the freight forwarding industry in Taiwan.

I joined Dolphin group in 2006. Dolphin Dalian is a joint-venture company with Dolphin Taiwan and I’m the general manager of the Dolphin Dalian company.

Historical moment as first inland China-Russia TIR transport arrives

Editor’s Note:
We are, of course, in the middle of the ‘green and renewable’ period of history. Also, railway and sea transport are both heavily promoted, but let’s not forget that road is still a very viable and efficient option for transport in many parts of the world. This is scarcely more apparent than in Central Asia, where the Silk Road can live up to its name, i.e. road over rail. Read this interesting news from IRU.

The first ever TIR transport from inland China to Russia conducted by Moscow-based transport operator D-Trans, a member of ASMAP, the Russian Association of International Road Carriers, has arrived at the customs of destination, marking a trade milestone between the two countries.

The Latest News from COSCO Shipping Specialized Carriers

Editor’s Note:
COSCO keeps on developing and has more focus than ever before on real marketing and being present at all international events. As China’s state carrier, they have, of course, their ultimate strength in The People’s Republic, but they also increasingly carry trade between foreign nations as shipowners, chartering out tonnage to anyone in need of it. China has always seen a national shipping line as their bridge to the rest of the world, which is probably the right way forward in today’s global, but still volatile, world.
Here you’ll see their latest marketing and sales guide book that tells you more.

CEO Mr. CHEN Wei and Party Secretary Mrs. ZHANG Li of COSCO SHIPPING Specialized Carriers, met with Chairman and Party Secretary WANG Guorong and Managing Director Mr. WANG Ran of COSCO SHIPPING (Tianjin) Co. Ltd.

HVCC optimises handling of inland waterway ships in the Port of Hamburg

Editor’s Note:
Inland waterways in Europe are important (as are they worldwide, of course) and Hamburg has now set in motion a development to optimise the handling of inland waterway ships, likely in order to help the city remain the preferred port of choice.

The Port of Hamburg is not only the largest seaport in Germany – it is also the second-largest inland port. Around 10,000 inland waterway vessels call each year the handling facilities of the Elbe metropolis. The Hamburg Vessel Coordination Center (HVCC) is now developing a digital platform specifically for inland waterway vessels that will allow ship calls to be coordinated centrally in the future. This marks another step towards more efficient digitised processes in the Port of Hamburg.

Entegris Breaks Ground on New High-Purity Drum Manufacturing Facility

Entegris Inc. (Nasdaq: ENTG), a leader in specialty chemicals and advanced materials solutions, today broke ground on their new state-of-the-art clean drum manufacturing facility for its Advanced Materials Handling division, in JangAn, Korea.

With an approximately $20M USD investment, equivalent to 24,453,000,000 KRW, Entegris will increase its HDPE drum manufacturing capacity by 50% once the facility opens in the second half of 2020. Today’s announcement adds to a significant investment previously announced for this facility in 2018.

Sungrow Signs Landmark Supply Agreement for a 400 MW PV Project in Chile

Sungrow, the global leading inverter solution supplier for renewables, announced it signed an agreement with Enel Green Power Chile to supply its featured 1500Vdc central inverter solutions to a 400 MW PV farm in Copiapo, Chile.

Reportedly the largest PV plant to be constructed in the country to date, this project demonstrates another milestone for Sungrow’s performance in the utility-scale solar segment in Latin America.

Aibel consortium wins major contract within offshore wind

The grid operator TenneT has awarded a major contract to an Aibel/Keppel consortium for the supply of the HVDC* platform and onshore converter station of the offshore grid connection project DolWin5. ABB will supply the complete HVDC* electrical power system. The order value that is not public is one of Aibel’s largest won contracts so far.

Aibel’s scope within the consortium, in which they own 50%, is the engineering and procurement while Keppel’s yard in Singapore will be constructing the converter platform. Aibel will also install ABB’s HVDC conversion equipment, including commissioning, transport and installation of the complete converter platform offshore.

Nel ASA: Receives first H2Station(R) order for Canada

Nel Hydrogen A/S, a subsidiary of Nel ASA (Nel, OSE:NEL), has received an order for the delivery of a H2Station® fueling station from HTEC (Hydrogen Technology & Energy Corporation). The H2Station® will be installed in Vancouver, British Columbia (BC) and will help expand the growing hydrogen fueling network for fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) in Canada.

“Nel looks forward to collaborating with HTEC on expanding the fueling coverage in Canada by providing our H2Station® equipment for an HTEC hydrogen fueling station in Vancouver.”

Editor’s Note:
Sunset over the Indian Ocean onboard CMA CGM Christophe Colomb.

Editor’s Note:
I was aboard the CMA CGM Christophe Colomb in the Red Sea when I took this picture of another CMA CGM vessel passing us northbound.