Dear Readers,
It is Thursday the 27th of October, and I am writing to you from Lord Howe Island. It was a long trip to get here. First via Phuket to attend the Global Conference for CLC Projects & Cross Ocean Networks, see the following group photo from the event.
Then via Singapore I flew down to Perth for a couple of days. I also visited Fremantle where, on my arrival, an OOCL container vessel arrived (see video here). So how is that for timing?
Finally, I went via Sydney on another red-eye flight then to Lord Howe Island, NSW which is in the Pacific, some 600 km east of Sydney in the Tasman Sea. A beautiful place where I intended to rest up for 2 days but due to stormy weather am confined like a convict for almost a week now. Hopefully Qantas can land soon… some pretty cool pictures here from the island.
But after this long trip –including 2 red-eye flights, jet lag and dozens of meetings– I also must admit that I am pretty beat, and it will take a while before I do such a monster trip again. Age is for sure creeping up, and I need my beauty sleep nowadays.
On the plus side, I certainly added a lot to my memory bank which is pretty full now. Soon it is time for real to turn to focusing on the family and children at home that needs a father’s attention. In that regard, it is time for me to let the Zoom and Teams apps of the world work for me, enabling me to stay more at home. Still, it is difficult sometimes to find the right balance, isn’t it? Particularly when you are in networking, you cannot run the world remotely…
The flights I took were in the back of the plane. All the flights were full, and check-in, security, immigration etc. all take longer nowadays, or so it seems. Still, all good and looking forward to landing in Stockholm which, weather permitting, will happen on October 31st.
I have been a bit out of touch with the world news, so I don’t have any political comments to make right now. Yet, I can see that the world is still a bit out of joint with the war in Ukraine and my country of residence, Sweden about to join NATO together with Finland.
The conversations down here in Australia do not focus so much on Europe. Here they are more into talking about China and its influence on Australian business and so on, and how to counter their influence. I suppose no one can or should stop China’s rise, but we can hope that they and the millions of nice people who live there, including my own family, will be able to live in a tolerant society now and also in the future; a society that seeks cooperation instead of confrontation. Impressive by any means though is how China has taken millions out of poverty in the last 30-40 years. Compared to Russia, that is quite a striking difference.
Who says that our system of politics is better and who are we to tell people how to live? It does seem to be that people are now worse off in Libya, Syria, and Afghanistan where the West tried to intervene and failed. Anyway, we shall see what the future brings.
So without further ado, we turn to our interviews for this week. They were recorded a couple of weeks ago because I had to take a break from PCW due to traveling. We have the following in store:
1. Esgian is a Norwegian-based company that provides emissions analytics for shipping which are a requirement nowadays from many shippers as they increasingly go green. They also have innovative commercial analysis tools for RoRo covering 750+ RoRo ships, 600 ports and 80,000 port pairs.
2. Eli Logistix in Monterey, Mexico tells us about trucking to/from the US and Mexico.
3. Strategio Consulting in Lisbon, Portugal is interesting and our interviewee has extensive knowhow of the former Portuguese colony of Mozambique among others.
We of course provide you with shipping news, trade intel, featured video and photo and wise words.
Wishing you all the best and until next week, I remain,
Yours sincerely,
Bo H. Drewsen
bo.drewsen@projectcargo-weekly.com
Video Interview
Esgian – Oslo, Norway
Stian Omli, Vice President, Shipping at Esgian – Oslo, Norway was interviewed by Bo H. Drewsen, Editor in Chief at PCW
Video Interview
Eli Logistix – Monterey, Mexico
Alfonso Torres, Director/Partner at Eli Logistix, Monterey, Mexico was interviewed by Bo H. Drewsen, Editor in Chief at PCW
Video Interview
Strategio Consulting – Portugal
Pedro Monjardino, Managing Director at Strategio Consulting, Portugal was interviewed by Bo H. Drewsen, Editor in Chief at PCW
COSCO Will Not Own the Port of Hamburg, HHLA guarantees
Editor’s Note:
Politics and shipping seems to be intertwined at least a bit nowadays. COSCO wanting to buy a share in a terminal in Hamburg is causing trouble…
COSCO is about to finalise the acquisition of 35 per cent shares of the Container Terminal Tollerort (CTT), managed by HHLA. This procedure has been worrying the German federal government, which is assessing whether COSCO’s participation in the CTT poses a national security risk. HHLA has reassured the public by stating that COSCO will not take over either the port of Hamburg or HHLA.
Technip Energies Signs Deal to Leave Arctic LNG 2 Project
Editor’s Note:
And Russia’s invasion of Ukraine causes still trouble as many global companies head of the exit door out of Russia probably for good. Here the latest…
Technip Energies expects to fully exit the liquefied natural gas project Arctic LNG 2 led by Moscow-listed gas producer Novatek next year, the French oil and gas services provider said on Thursday.
The group, which said in March it was renouncing new business opportunities in Russia, had expected Western sanctions enacted against Russia after its invasion of Ukraine to reduce the company’s involvement in Arctic LNG 2.
Heerema Breaks Lifting Record with 17,000 Metric Ton TotalEnergies’ Tyra TEG Module
Editor’s Note:
The Dutch may not be big spenders ? but some of them surely know about heavylift shipping and are among the most professional in the world when it comes to REAL heavylift handling.
Heerema Marine Contractors safely installed TotalEnergies’ biggest Tyra II topside on the last remaining bare jacket at the Tyra field. The lift of the 17,000 metric tons heavy process module broke a world record as the heaviest crane lift ever undertaken at sea.
Israeli Plant-based Food Company Expands to Queensland
Vegan foods company, Vgarden, will create a new, plant-based foods factory in Brisbane, Queensland. The deal is part of an ongoing relationship with Australia-based Cale and Daughters, which owns multiple vegan brands.
Wärtsilä to Provide Latvian Company with Biogas Upgrading and Liquefaction in a Single Turnkey Solution
Technology group Wärtsilä has announced it will supply a BioLNG plant in Tervete, Latvia. The order was placed by AS Agrofirma Tervete, who will utilise the plant to upgrade, polish, and liquefy biogas from agricultural waste into bioLNG. The order was included in Wärtsilä’s order intake in September 2022.
Smurfit Kappa to Invest in Biomass Boiler at Yumbo Mill in Colombia
The ambitious project is the latest example of the circularity that permeates every aspect of the company’s operations. Smurfit Kappa has successfully implemented biomass boilers at several other locations including the Nervion, Piteå and Sangüesa paper mills in Europe.
Swedish Group Contac Solutions to Build Factory in Romania
Swedish cable company Contac Solutions established a branch in Romania and plans to build a cable factory in the western part of the country at Arad, according to Economedia.ro quoting Evertiq
A Visit to Lord Howe Island – October 2022
Editor’s Note:
Once in a lifetime paying a visit to the remote Lord Howe Island, off the coast of Australia. Pretty amazing place indeed…. Not much shipping here but still amazing and believe they got a ship coming once a month from Port Macquarie with supplies…
Editor’s Note:
Nice feeling to have made the footsteps as the only one…at least in the morning and on top of that on a remote island called Lord Howe which is a beautiful place to be indeed – but now stuck due to weather as Qantas cannot land, thus cannot depart…
