Dear Readers,
It is Thursday 4th October and Project Cargo Weekly is here. This week is what the Chinese call the Golden Week holidays. The central government certainly plans the week to ensure a lot of domestic consumption will take place so that the traditional Chinese savers will be enticed to spend a bit more to keep the wheels turning.
Its getting cooler here in Stockholm where I am and darkness is setting-in earlier. I hope that I will be able to finally start reading more books, something that I almost never have time to do unless I’m on a container ship sailing the seas in peace and quiet.
The cold here seems warm now in particular because I am currently reading a book by Varlam Sjalamov where he describes the horrific prison time he was sentenced to in the Siberian Kolyma region of Russia during the Stalin times. I also researched a bit about Kolyma region and found this video clip on Youtube from Australia’s 60 Minutes.
The road of bones there was literally built on the dead bodies from the Gulag, Stalin’s infamous prison camp system. Another book I can recommend to you which I read years ago is called “I chose Freedom” by Victor A. Kravchenko. He describes the time from being born in 1905 working his way up through to Sovnarkom, part of the government surviving the “cleansing” of the party by Stalin, to finally taking his own life in the early 60’s in America while working for the Soviet Union Trade Mission.
Reading these books is mind-opening and puts our hardships into perspective.
I won’t miss the chance to remind you that traveling by a freighter is ideal for reading books as you won’t be bothered by room service or dressing up like a penguin for dinner! You will find routes and prices available worldwide by visiting www.cross-ocean.com/ocean-voyages.
Interviews this week contain a mixed geographical bag for you. We start off in the US and in the beautiful western state of Idaho where we are connected to an international trucking company able to handle all kinds of oversized loads throughout the US and North America. As many of us know you really need solid contacts in the US for inland transport or you can be “taken for a ride” so to speak.
We then stay in the Americas and travel by plane to Haiti, a country that it turns out is an interesting shipping hub with modern facilities and capable companies to deal with, we speak to one of them. Haiti is worth a visit, it is certainly better than most people imagine.
Finally we return to the land of curry with a very young and huge population and the home of the Ambassador car, India. We speak to a versatile project freight forwarder in Delhi.
We also provide you with sector news (get your sales department to work at both origin and destination) as well as some very interesting featured videos, photo and wise words. Do enjoy, relax and bear in mind that tomorrow it is the weekend again!
Until next week, I remain,
Yours sincerely,
Bo H. Drewsen
bo.drewsen@projectcargo-weekly.com
R&R Express – Boise, Idaho – USA
Interview with
Mr. Dustin Dance
Logistics Manager – Projects and Heavy Haul
Can you give us a bit of input on how inland freight generally works in the western US?
When transporting cargo inland from the ports, we deal with a variety of different factors. Here in the US, each state has different regulations regarding oversized freight and what is required to move that freight. Some states allow certain trailers to enter while other states will not let that same trailer setup enter their state. It becomes a puzzle sometimes. We look at each state individually and then determine what we need, including pilot cars, routes, pole cars, police escorts etc. as well as considering the safest and quickest way to the destination.
Caribbean Port Services – Port Au Prince, Haiti
Interview with
Mr. Phhilippe Coles
CEO
Tell our readers about some of the major challenges you face logistics-wise in Haiti and can you possibly provide us with a few examples of projects you have handled or ships of which you have taken care?
We have handled turbines for the Peligre power station, tanks for a large beverage company, OOGs of all types, very large equipment, etc. Unloading is often the easy part, but taking the cargoes to their final destination is sometimes a challenge due to the mountainous terrain. Still, nothing that can’t be handled. With the proper equipment, hydraulic lowboys and an experienced driver, we can make sure all cargoes are delivered anywhere in the country.
Kodan Solutions Pvt., Ltd. – Delhi, India
Interview with
Mrs. Ittu Sharma
COO
What kind of project cargo shipments are you good at handling? Can you provide us with some examples?
We are handling a diversified portfolio with projects for some of the most capital intensive sectors, like power, mining, railways, infrastructure etc. In the recent past, we have been fortunate enough to be a part of many wonderful projects like moving the robotic factory for Indian Railways, a forged wheel plant for Ministry of Steel, a Chinese mobile phone manufacturing factory, windmills from India to the USA and UK, transformers weighing approximately 140 tons, dump trucks and shovels out of India, large lathe machines, some cement plant equipment and a crushing plant etc.
Almroths is Building Sweden’s Largest Tent for Logistics
Editor’s Note:
A Swedish freight forwarder Almroths, Norrkoeping, Sweden signed a deal with a major Swedish company called SSAB concerning 3PL logistics. They will store steel products in a facility that is 35 meters wide, 230 meters long and with an area of 8,000 m2. The facility is being erected on a former landing strip called F13 of the Swedish Airforce in Norrkoeping (about 200 km south of Stockholm). It is impressive, but you can only appreciate the scale by watching this video.
Wallem’s Taiwan Agency Team Recently Handled the Call and Operations for OHT
Hyundai Merchant Marine Pulls Trigger on 20 Large Container Ships for $2.8 Billion
Editor’s Note:
South Korean state shipping line Hyundai Merchant Marine inks a major new-building deal. Let us hope that again all of these ships will be filled with world trade and that the trade war doesn’t expand unexpectedly.
The orders are spread out among South Korea’s ‘Big Three’ shipbuilders: Hyundai Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME). The contracts follow Letter of Intents signed between HMM and the shipbuilders back in June, just a few months after the company first confirmed its intention to place orders for the twenty eco-friendly new builds.
Plants & Processing
Lorch Schweißtechnik Announces South Pacific Subsidiary
Lorch Schweißtechnik, a leading German manufacturer of electric arc welding systems for industrial applications, metalworking, partially automated solutions and robot automation systems, has announced their new subsidiary Lorch South Pacific. Read more…
Kumho Tire Signs 10-year Technology Deal with Pakistan’s Century Engineering
Kumho Tire Co., South Korea’s second-largest tiremaker by sales, said Thursday it has signed a 10-year technology transfer agreement with a Pakistani company. Read more…
Metsa Group and Itochu Join to Produce Textile Fibers
Metsä Spring and Japanese Itochu are to establish a joint venture, which invests approximately EUR 40 million in building and operating a test plant, with the aim to demonstrate a new technology for converting paper-grade pulp into textile fibers, reports Metsä Group. Business Finland, a Finnish governmental funding agency, participates in the financing of the demo project with an R&D loan. Read more…
43.5m Long Trams Discharged in Brisbane with Extended Rolltrailer Concept
The railcars were loaded on a special truck trailer at the factory in Austria and driven directly on board Höegh Traveller in Bremerhaven. On board the vessel, the trams were pulled from the 50 metre long truck trailer to the extended rolltrailer concept. Breaking a record, this was the first time a tram of this size has been loaded in one piece on a RoRo vessel. The railcars were successfully discharged in Brisbane following their six-week, 14 000 nautical mile sea journey.
https://www.hoeghautoliners.com/
Editor’s Note:
An interesting video from SCMP evidencing which is the faster way from Hong Kong to Guangzhou in light of the new railway that was completed linking the two world cities.
Editor’s Note:
An impressive work done in Spain for the renewable wind industry. Spain is not only sleepy afternoons, good food and wine. They are also active in the renewable energy sector with the World’s tallest wind turbine tower now being erected.
Editor’s Note:
Bahri, the national shippingline of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia maintains several roro liner services, mainly between the Middle East and Europe, the Americas and India. A nice video here of some very special rail-wagons loaded for Saudi Arabia.
Editor’s Note:
Another impressive project carried by BBC Chartering headquartered in the city of Leer, Germany. Leer means empty in German but this vessel was by no means empty!
https://www.bbc-chartering.com/
