Dear Readers,
It is Thursday the 30th of January and we are a month into 2020. Currently the big news, besides the Chinese new year, is the corona virus which seems to be spreading geographically and slowly-but-surely starting a bit of a stampede out of China. My wife and daughter are currently in Shandong province, some 500 km southeast of Beijing, and they are supposed to return on Monday to Stockholm. I hope they get home safely and without too much of a delay because, frankly, I am no good in the kitchen!
A friend of mine who was trying to travel from Shanghai to Bangkok with his daughter had to try three times to exit the country due to very stringent temperature controls. They were denied exit twice, the second time after the daughter’s temperature exceeded the limit of 37°c by a mere 0.3°c. Eventually, they made it to Bangkok.
One thing we can be sure of is if China wants to contain and control something stringently there is no other country short of North Korea who can do it and considering the number of people, the timing with Chinese new year just finished with millions of travelers, the authorities really have their work cut out for them. If something similar happened in Europe I doubt that we would have control of much. My hometown in Denmark can hardly manage to run the local commuter train on-time or on-budget. Yet one of our newspapers managed to make “fun” of the situation in China by replacing the stars on the Chinese flag with illustrations of the coronavirus particles. A tasteless and, in my view, inappropriate use of our “freedom of speech”. Strange, isn’t it, how we in the west always preach to others about how to behave?
On the shipping front lots of things are happening too, it now seems that Zeamarine in many ways is leaving the shipping business that they forcefully entered into with the takeover of Intermarine and Rickmers Line. Several key people have left and many ships have been let go. On the container shipping front, several high-level executives are moving from place to place in what seems to be senior executive poaching amongst the major container ship owners.
Salary cannot be the only guiding light, likely varying degrees of freedom and not wanting to deal with unrealistic owner requirements must influence the, otherwise long term, executive’s mobility. Making money is good but making more money is not always proportionately better, which leads me to ask, “at what cost are we willing to pay for happiness these days?” and “how do you quantify that?”
In that vein here is an interesting clip on happiness performed by an actor, or you could, of course, simply take up a hobby such as fishing, to get away from it all. Read this article that we recently had in PCW Leisure about a guy who opened a company offering guided sport fishing tours to Thailand & Myanmar. It sounds like paradise to me.
In the newsletter, we, first of all, visit the low lying country of Bangladesh. Bangladesh is for many in the news only when some flooding or major disaster strikes, but what many overlook is that the country is developing rapidly and quite a bit of project cargo is moving into the country for the infrastructure, power plants and more. We speak to JAR World Shipping in Chittagong.
We then leave the crowded country of Bangladesh and do a long-haul flight to Argentina where we meet up with a local logistics provider called SAB Logistica. Argentina has a lot to offer in business, tourism and not least some of the best steaks available worldwide, washed down with local red wine (often Merlot). We finally revisit a German shipowner from Rostock called Stinnes Linien running an interesting service into Mexico followed by the usual shipping news, trade intel and features of the week finishing off with wise words.
Until next Thursday, I remain,
Yours sincerely,
Bo H. Drewsen
bo.drewsen@projectcargo-weekly.com
JAR World Shipping Line – Chittagong, Bangladesh
Interview with
Mr. Jinnat Ali
CEO
The economy of Bangladesh is booming. There are lots of ongoing industrial projects. Can you tell us more about the development of your country?
Bangladesh is quickly moving to a high-value, knowledge-intensive society, beyond apparel manufacturing. Last year, we exported 12 industrial robots to Korea. Four ships made in Bangladesh have come to India. Recently, Reliance purchased a large quantity of refrigerators made in Bangladesh. Bangladesh also has 600,000 IT freelancers — the largest freelancing community. This all speaks to a quiet transformation in which people have taken risks and faced challenges by becoming more innovative and adopting technology. It is time that global investors, particularly Indian entrepreneurs, invest in Bangladesh in areas beyond the conventional menu such as education, light engineering, electronics, the automotive industry, and artificial intelligence.
SAB Logistica S.A. – Argentina
Interview with
Mr. Dante Javier Alvarez
Projects & Chartering
Javier, please tell our readers about yourself and your own background in shipping. When did you start your career? Why did you choose this kind of job?
I started in this industry in 1992. My first job was for J.H.Bachmann Argentina S.A. It was a very nice experience. I had the good luck to work with German people as my first employment because they taught me the best side of our job. My first project cargo experience was with the General Motors Plant in Argentina (45,000 CBM). This was also a really nice experience. I worked at General Motors up to 1998. Then I joined SAB Logistics S.A. and am here up to today. I’m a custom broker registered in Argentina. Really I think this job chose me, and I am really very appreciative of that.
Hugo Stinnes Schiffahrt GmbH – Rostock, Germany
Interview with
Mr. Steffen Wiegratz
Line Manager – SanMex Service – MPP Transatlantic
What type of ships do you currently employ and what capacity can you offer with own gear?
The operated tonnage are craned tweendeck vessels of the modern generation and capacities between 12 and 34.000 tdw, equipped for the carriage of sensitive steel materials as well as loadings of over-length and heavy-weight cargo. The geared vessels have the option to handle cargoes up to 300mt.
Rhenus in Rotterdam buys first Dutch electric harbor mobile crane with external power supply
Editor’s Note:
The Rhenus terminal in Rotterdam is very useful and versatile for project cargo. I visited it myself last year and had a tour of it while I was in town for the grand opening of the new COSCO Breakbulk Shipping office in Rotterdam.
Breakbulk & heavylift terminal operator Rhenus Logistics B.V. in Rotterdam ordered the first electric harbor mobile crane with external power supply in the Netherlands from Konecranes.
New Direct Shuttle Train For Bratislava
Editor’s Note:
Central Europe is opening up more and more for using ports in southern Europe as alternative for their im and exports. Latest here from Port of Koper, Adriatic Sea.
Adria Kombi has with the cooperation of Rail Cargo Operator started in mid-January a new railway service connecting Koper Container Terminal with Bratislava.
Latest news from Penningtons Singapore office.
Editor’s Note:
It seems that Singapore is about to become a trusted and ratified place for mediation. More often than not we all wish to avoid costly lawyers and long winded court cases so why not if possible solve the problem through “simple” mediation. Lawyers are still needed but perhaps not for so many hours as would be the case in a court case.
China’s economy is the largest in the world by purchasing power parity and the second largest in the world by nominal GDP and, with reported growth rates averaging 6% over 30 years, it is the world’s fastest-growing economy.
It follows therefore that with this level of growth, disputes will be close behind.
ICC Livecast: The Incoterms® 2020 – New Rules, Old Problems
Editor’s Note:
Live webcast available for those of you interested in learning more about Incoterms 2020.
January 30th | Time: 07.00 (NYC) | 13.00 (Paris) | 20.00 (Singapore)
Livecast link: https://icc.academy/livecast/
Duration: 30 – 45 minutes
Valmet to Supply Board Machine Rebuild to Umka, Serbia
Valmet announced it will supply a board machine rebuild to Umka Cardboard Mill in Serbia. The main target of the rebuild is to increase the customer’s production capacity. The start-up of the rebuilt paper machine PM 1 is scheduled for the second half of 2021.
QUBE Renewables is Using its Technology to Tackle India’s Air Quality Crisis.
The company is installing 50 QUBEs (AD kits) in the paddy fields of the Punjab region to help deal with the growing air pollution problem. Crop burning in the region is estimated to make a 40% contribution to Delhi’s pollution levels, and an estimated 150 tonnes of rotting rice straw releases around 16 tonnes of methane.
WesTrac building Caterpillar autonomous training facility in Western Australia
Caterpillar dealer WesTrac has announced it will build a technology training facility in Collie, Western Australia, focused on providing courses in autonomous operations.
Konecranes Automated RTGs to three European container terminals
Konecranes has signed contracts with Yilport for the delivery of Automated RTG systems to three of Yilport’s European container terminals, two in Portugal and one in Sweden. Automated RTG operation is coming of age in Europe, driven by Konecranes. The order was booked in December 2019.
Giant Luxury Shuttle Service for Superyachts – Documentary
Editor’s Note:
A very impressive film about moving several luxury yachts worldwide. Seafreight is probably not the biggest problem for owners if they can pay usd 30 million for one of these yachts! It is impressive all the same and perhaps something to own…..in the next life.
Living on a Container Ship
Editor’s Note:
As an avid fan of traveling worldwide by container ship as passenger, I found this very nice video featuring a passenger’s trip onboard CMA CGM Vela. Do watch it to the end and enjoy the wonderful background music of Enya, which is, indeed, the right music to listen to when soaking up the scenery on the high seas. Dont forget, you may book your own ticket through www.cross-ocean.com/ocean-voyages – where you can also view available routes.
Editor’s Note:
A nice picture taken in the Mediterrenean whilst onboard CMA CGM Andromeda. It shows one of the Con-Ro vessels owned by MESSINA Lines passing by us enroute to Italy from East Africa.
