Dear Readers,
It’s Thursday 15th August and we are back in your inbox. I am currently on a quick trip to Malta, which is an island located strategically in the middle of the Mediterranean. The island country has, for about fifteen years, been a member of the EU and business down here seems to be going well. Construction cranes are everywhere and lots of money has been flowing into the country, allowing construction of buildings to take place unabated. With a population of about 460,000 and with a size of only 316sqm, you can imagine how crowded the island is. It is sun-drenched here indeed and everyone has a great command of English since it was an English ‘colony’ until, I believe, 1964.
Many Britons have retired here over the years and Malta also played a significant role during the Second World War. Recently, Malta allowed overseas investors to buy citizenship here, in-part to generate income for the country and, shall we say, climb higher up the food chain. It has brought a lot of wealthy foreigners to the island, but it perhaps also has some negative effects overall for the local population.
Malta is a big transhipment hub for, among others, CMA CGM and the container terminal at Marsaxlokk has a more than two million a year turnover. I lived here for a couple of years and kept the condo down here, enabling me to see the sunshine, which is particularly lovely during wintertime when Scandinavia is covered in darkness for most hours of the day. Many parents from Asia send their children here to learn English and it is in many ways a very interesting island, both from a historical and a political perspective.
The US embassy, for example, is gigantic here, so perhaps it’s the proximity to Libya that makes them want to have their own little “Fort Knox” here. I don’t think they got this kind of embassy here due to any cultural exchange between the two countries. So, as we have seen elsewhere, the bigger powers of the world often play their little games against each other, often on the territory of other countries.
Do visit the island and check out www.visitmalta.com. Also, see also this nice video about the place:
Having worked here this week while writing this week’s edition, I have been blessed with this view from my condo:
Regarding business this week, we shall indeed travel the world extensively. We start with daring to pay a visit to New Jersey, USA and we interview a project freight forwarder established there with a high reputation for reliability. We then travel eastwards almost as far away as you can, to a country that could perhaps be easily overlooked if you didn’t know that it was there. The island state of Vanuatu in the Pacific Ocean is our destination, and, interestingly enough, we get an introduction to shipping to-and-from these remote islands. Lastly, we return to Asia and interview a company with a base in Singapore but also with operations in both Malaysia and Myanmar, among others. Of course, as usual we provide you with trade intelligence, shipping news and wise words, as well as our usual featured video and picture of the week.
Finally, a short reminder to look out for the first-ever issue of Project Cargo Weekly Leisure, due out tomorrow 16th August.
Enjoy reading and until next time, I remain,
Yours sincerely,
Bo H. Drewsen
bo.drewsen@projectcargo-weekly.com
HLI Logistics – New Jersey, USA
Interview with
Mr. Georg Fischer
Operations Director
Can you elaborate on why it seems difficult to find reliable partners in the US and what the reason is for the exorbitant prices quoted?
You must be diligent in your business relationship and build a partnership, not just buy from somebody. It all boils down to communication and the assurance that all angles are covered. Everybody can throw out a number and then exclude line items in the ‘subject to’. We also find that overseas agents deal with barge and trucking companies, etc. directly to save the profit share amount or handling fee of having a middle man in the US. When things do not run smoothly, the overseas party realizes that something went amiss in the quotation exchanges.
PCF Agencies & Tropical Agency Ltd. – Vanuatu
Interview with
Mr. Laurence Cameron and Mr. Mark Pardoe
Principal Customs Broker at PCF Agencies and Country Manager at Tropical Agency Ltd.
I understand that you work as a shipping agent but that you also have a freight forwarding division?
Tropical Agency Ltd. is a shipping agency only with multiple principals. They are Swire Shipping, NYK-NBP, Kyowa Shipping, Ocean Network Express (ONE), CMA/CGM, Sofrana-ANL and Vanguard Logistic Services (VLS).
PCF Agencies handle all the local paperwork as customs brokers and freight forwarders. We work closely with agencies in Australia, New Zealand and the USA for all our clients’ import and export needs.
Bollard Solution – Singapore
Interview with
Mr. Surajit Kumar Das
Managing Director
Elaborate, if you will, on your offices please. As you’ve stated, you have an office in Myanmar, among others. What are the main activities of each office?
Bollard Solution has offices in Singapore, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
Bollard Malaysia, apart from providing agency representation services for liner, NVOCC, feeder and non-liner tramping vessels, we also do local logistics, including trucking, warehousing and customs clearance. We have a fleet of special equipment and containers and thus, we focus mainly on projects. We can provide a supply chain solution that could involve trucking, barging, reconsolidation and then ship-to-ship or barge-to-ship transfer, in one supply process.
Collett Deliver the World’s Largest Crane
Editor’s Note:
Size matters, and if size means anything to you then be sure to see this impressive news from Collett & Sons, UK.
Unveiled at the Port of Ghent in November 2018, Sarens SGC-250, the largest crane in the world, required a transport solution for delivery to the Hinkley Point C Nuclear Power Plant (HPC) site in Somerset.
Destined for its first UK project, the SGC-250 will play a key role in constructing Hinkley Point C Nuclear Power Plant, which is currently the largest and most complex civil engineering project in the UK.
New Project Freight Division Opens at Mallory Alexander with Michael Confessore at the Helm
Mallory Alexander International Logistics has increased its service offering with a dedicated project freight division, headed by project and heavylift veteran, Michael Confessore.
Confessore, who has a background in engineering and 23 years’ industry experience, has managed a range of heavylift and breakbulk projects in the oil, gas, and energy sectors in senior management positions for more than a decade.
Port Industry Outlook 2030 at the Baltic Ports Conference
Editor’s Note:
The Baltic ports are important for the Nordic Region and soon there will be an interesting conference taking place in Stockholm.
Bladt JV on Schedule in Taiwan
Work on production facilities for Century Bladt Foundation, a joint venture between Century Wind Power and Bladt Industries in Taiwan, is well underway and expected to be completed in the coming year.
Bladt said the 31,000-metre-square production facility will be used for the manufacturing of jackets, monopiles and pin piles.
Construction Starts at Orocobre and Toyota Tsusho’s Japan Plant
Lithium miner Orocobre and joint venture (JV) partner Toyota Tsusho Corporation (TTC) on Tuesday held a ground-breaking ceremony to mark the beginning of construction on the Naraha lithium hydroxide plant, in Japan. The plant will convert primary-grade lithium carbonate feedstock sourced from the Olaroz facility, in Argentina, into purified battery-grade lithium hydroxide. Some 9 500 t/y of primary grade lithium carbonate will be used to produce 10 000 t/y of battery grade lithium hydroxide.
The plant will convert primary-grade lithium carbonate feedstock sourced from the Olaroz facility, in Argentina, into purified battery-grade lithium hydroxide. Some 9 500 t/y of primary grade lithium carbonate will be used to produce 10 000 t/y of battery grade lithium hydroxide.
Irvine’s Botswana and Jamesway
Irvine’s Poultry Company of South Africa has been producing chicken in Southern Africa since the 1950s and has grown from a single room in a home to producing over 1,5 million day-old chicks per week across Botswana, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Irvine’s will be installing new Jamesway equipment at their facility in Botswana. The project will add 3 Platinum P60 Incubators and 2 P30 Hatchers to their existing stable of Jamesway machines with a combined output of 193,536 per week.
RUAG Space and Firefly Aerospace Sign Supplier Agreement
Firefly Aerospace Inc. (Austin, Texas, U.S) space launch provider of small and medium-sized launch vehicles for commercial launches to orbit, and RUAG Space (Zürich, Switzerland; Decatur, Ala., U.S.), a leading independent product supplier for spacecraft, electronics and launchers, have signed a Long-term Purchase Agreement for Separation Systems.
This contract creates a supplier agreement for Firefly launch vehicles and is for multiple launches using a RUAG Space separation system (payload adapter) from RUAG Space in Linköping, Sweden.
Port Cartagena – Colombia
Editor’s Note:
Today we show a short video from the port of Cartagena, on the north coast of Colombia – enjoy.
Editor’s Note:
Passing through the Sunda Strait coming from Port Kelang going to Fremantle was an experience. Was at the bow onboard CMA CGM Georgia and it was interesting to be there in particular since the strait is relatively narrow. Very hot and humid and a lot of ferries going between the two populous Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra.
Editor’s Note:
The unsung heroes. Any sailor’s highlight of the day, while being away from home for six months in particular, is the meal aboard. Here a shot of the galley on board CMA CGM Georgia, where the most capable Sri Lankan cook rustled up great meals for all of us on a daily basis.
