Dear Readers,
It is the 24th of November, Thursday, and the final issue before the month of December is upon us. For most of us, that is the last month of the year… unless you also celebrate the Chinese New Year which begins on January 22, 2023 ? .
I just got back from a great trip to Denmark. I visited both our capital Copenhagen with its renowned lunch restaurants (accompanied by beer and aquavit) and then a visit to my parents. I was a bit in luck on Thursday last week as several shipowner and shipbroker reps were meeting anyway in Nyhavn, Copenhagen. See featured picture in this week’s issue and you can also see here a small compilation of pictures from my trip to Gothenburg, Copenhagen, Grenaa and then back to snow chaos in Stockholm.
On Friday (tomorrow), I am departing for Dubai, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Malta before being grounded from December 6 to early February 2023.
On Saturday in Singapore, I will join some other Danish friends at the Dubai Golf Club as it seems we can watch the Denmark vs. France football match there on the big screen. No doubt an interesting event, although the choice of venue by FIFA surely enriched some of the decision maker’s wallets. I mean who are we kidding nowadays.
Mao Tse Tung the “great” Chinese leader said it most aptly: ” In the cleanest water live no fish.” That doesn’t mean that I or anyone for that matter should condone or should accept unfair business practices, but look around you. See the world how it is instead of pretending to live in a dream world. Money changes people. It always has and always will. It is simply a matter of reducing corruption, waste, and nepotism to a manageable degree. However, eradicating it completely is a pipe dream in my view. I am, of course, proud that the countries where I reside mostly in the year, i.e., Sweden and Denmark are low on the corruption list, but we have our instances of ill gotten gains, too–certainly also among the powers that be and the powers that, yes, just talk…… Malta where I also lived for a couple of years had a journalist murdered not long ago due to exposing a few things linking up the government and some business people, and I dare say that other “clean” European countries have their share.
As I am turning 60 in February, I read with interest this infographic about where the best places to retire would be apparently. Seems that I am living in one of them, and although not in the top spot, Sweden is at least among the (several) Scandinavian countries that are highly ranked. Proof is in the pudding, and let’s see the length of the waiting list to get an operation when something happens…
I had good discussions as usual with my parents in Grenaa. I fear for the day when we are just the 2 of us left (out of 4) to enjoy a drink, a cigarette, and talking about old times. It seems that we never run out of subjects to chew over, whether it’s past or present, politics or family. Perhaps it is simply a reflection of the many years we have been apart either due to travel, sailing, living abroad or such. The memory bank is close to full, and I remind all that filling up the memory bank in time for that rainy day when you can no longer move is VITAL…
So when I turn 60, I decided that I will reduce my travel and workload – although perhaps I am lying to myself once again – let’s see. Retiring completely is probably impossible. A man’s gotta do what man’s gotta do. I don’t know how to play golf and collecting stamps is boring…
Here’s my philosophy: Live a little every day with a goal which is more-or-less unreachable. In that way, the journey towards the goal is your real life in (I believe) the right way. I think it was United Airlines that said it perfectly in an ad once: “Life is a journey; travel it well”… (which of course nowadays doesn’t mean travelling United or American with coffee in paper cups.. ?).
So without further ado, let me tell you what is in store in today’s issue of Project Cargo Weekly.
1. We visit the beautiful country of Malaysia, ‘Truly Asia’, as their slogan was years ago and talk to a highly specialised and asset-owning, project freight forwarding company called MegaLift based in Port Klang, the main port of Malaysia.
2. We visit the UK, –the cradle of many things including the wonderful game of football (and messy politics). Here we visit a great and particularly well-renowned ferry port but also to my surprise a port that has many solutions for heavylift and project cargoes. Thus we speak to Portico & Port of Portsmouth and listen to what they can offer. If you need transport to the channel islands, Portsmouth is the link to Jersey / Guernsey.
3. We revisit the country that has had the most government since 1939, and that is of course ITALY. A smaller but well established project freight forwarder called Energy International Logistics SRL has its HQ there, and their owner tells us more.
We provide you, as usual, with shipping news, trade intel, wise words and a featured picture and video of the week.
See you next Thursday on December 1st, and for those of you (many hopefully) do make a note that…
Thursday 15th December will be the final issue of 2022
Thursday 12th January will be the first issue of 2023
This timetable is in order to focus on making the PROJECT CARGO WEEKLY 2022 YEARBOOK, which will be highly sought after as usual!
Until next Thursday, I remain,
Yours sincerely,
Bo H. Drewsen
bo.drewsen@projectcargo-weekly.com
Video Interview
MegaLift Malaysia
Ling Ling Lim, General Manager, Sales & Business Development at Megalift Sdn Bhd was interviewed by Bo H. Drewsen, Editor in Chief at PCW
Video Interview
Portico & Port of Portsmouth
Matt Green, Commercial Accounts Manager at Portico and Joe Jordan, Duty Port Operations Manager at Portsmouth International Port were interviewed by Bo H. Drewsen, Editor in Chief at PCW
Energy International Logistics SRL – Milan, Italy
Interview with
Mr. Trevor Norrish
Co-Founder & Partner
Interview with
Trevor, firstly can you please tell us about the history of Energy International? When was the company established, who owns it and what kind of logistics business are you mainly involved in?
Personally, I am British and my family came to live in Genoa after World War II, taking over a shipping agency. I was involved very early on in first hand port activity, as agents for Delmas to West Africa and Rickmers with their conventional service to China (before HL took over). Fast forward to today and I have lived in Milan for over thirty-five years.
Energy Intl. Logistics started as we teamed up with partners coming from multinationals, such as Geodis, K&N, Fagioli, JAS etc. and we decided to start our own business in February 2011, combining our common knowledge in the road transport, sea freight and projects sectors. Our CEO is Maurizio Curone, who, today with another three shareholders, manages Energy, TSI (national distributer) and Sintesi (Engineering). Franco Faini (ex Fagioli, JAS Projects) and I head projects and OOG cargo and the rest of the business is in European road services and air-freight.
Long term: QatarEnergy & Sinopec Strike Major LNG Supply Deal
Editor’s Note:
Not directly project shipping news of course but still it will have repercussions overall. A 27 year deal between China and Qatar for the supply of gas. Talk about longterm thinking!
QatarEnergy has signed a major deal with China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) for the long-term supply of liquefied natural gas to the Chinese market.
QatarEnergy has “entered into a 27-year sales and purchase agreement with Sinopec for the supply of 4 million tonnes per annum of LNG to the People’s Republic of China,” it said in a statement.
Port Performance North America: Where Are the Pressure Points?
Editor’s Note:
An interesting webcast perhaps for you to be part of. US ports have lacked behind notoriously behind Asian ports in particular even infrastructure has been lacking longterm thinking and planning. But perhaps things are a-changing…
North American ports the past two years suffered through congestion at their marine terminals, vessel backlogs, equipment shortages and bottlenecks throughout the inland supply chains leading all the way to rail hubs hundreds of miles from the coasts.
Boxship Charter Market Could See a Deluge of Sub-let Surplus Tonnage
Editor’s Note:
Shipping rates are finally becoming more reasonable as are box ship chartering rates which similarly have seen a significant drop. What goes up must come down even in shipping…
Containership charter rates have stabilised in the past two weeks, after falling 70% since August – but daily rates could start to head south again as liner operators look to sub-let surplus tonnage.
Brokers agree that the main reason for the levelling-out of charter rates is the lack of open tonnage on the market.
The Proposed Kra Canal: Maritime Highway of the Future
Editor’s Note:
The KRA canal is an interesting idea and it has been an idea for some years… read more below as it would be quite interesting if it comes to fruition.
The proposed Kra Canal has been seen as a catalyst that could transform shipping industry in the region by shortening navigational distance without having to go around the Malay Peninsula via the Straits of Malacca and Singapore.
France’s HDF Energy to Develop Uganda’s First Hydrogen Plant
Uganda has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with French independent power producer HDF Energy to develop a green hydrogen power plant in Uganda, according to a statement issued late on Tuesday.
Huisman Awarded Contract for Monopile Gripper
The gripper will enable TOA and Obayashi to upend and install monopiles without using a separate upending bucket, improving safety and efficiency of operations on board. The gripper will be the first of its kind to be used in Japan. I will be installed on TOA and Obayashi’s self-elevating platform (SEP), which is fitted with a 1,250-tonne Huisman pedestal-mounted crane.
Turkish Sandwich Panel Maker to Open North Macedonian Plant
Skopje, North Macedonia — Turkish sandwich panel specialist Teknopanel is to invest in a new production facility in North Macedonia. The factory’s output will include sandwich panels made using PU and PIR, and EPS products.
GroundProbe Announces Second US Manufacturing Facility
GroundProbe has announced plans to build a second dedicated manufacturing facility in Tucson, in the US state of Arizona, marking a new chapter in its commitment to serve its Northern Hemisphere customers better.
Passing the Port of Södertälje by Fast Train to Gothenburg
Editor’s Note:
Passing the port of Södertälje by fast train to Gothenburg clearly showed me that lots of cargo had just arrived. Cars as well as prefab housing modules from Asia were filling up the port. More prefab modules are expected with some 20,000 f/t coming in early 2023.
Editor’s Note:
What can be better than a relaxed lunch ahead of Christmas between colleagues in shipping and as charterers, ports, freight forwarders, owners, and liner operators were represented ALL views were heard particular after a few cheers…?
