Dear Readers,
It is Thursday the 12th of December, and it is time for our last publication of the year 2024.
The year has for me been a remarkable one. My feeling that it seems to have gone past quickly can hardly surprise anyone.
On the family front, as you know, my father passed. From the many notes of condolence I received from all over the world, it is clear that this is a hard milestone for anyone to get over. Many seemingly have had the same situation, and yes, it does indeed put the value of life into perspective when it is lost or when you are about to lose it.
On the business front, the year gave me yet again a vast array of great experiences, not least the trip onboard mv ABB Vanessa which was my home for 47 days from Sines, Portugal to Soma, Japan courtesy of www.coli-group.com operating this MPP vessel. Big world politics also played a role. We were required to take the long route south of Africa instead of via Suez due to the trouble in the Red Sea & Yemen.
Let us see what Trump 2.0 can do in the new year. I think much of the world is waiting to see whether some of the world’s conflicts can be stopped with his methods at the helm rather than the methods (or lack of) from Biden. The jury is out on that, but at least Biden managed to pardon his son. Power does give you some advantages.
Immigration and lack of control thereof remains an obstacle in the EU. As for Britain, a staggering 900,000 arrived on the small island during the year 2024. Housing, social services, hospitals and what not certainly won’t run out of clients anytime soon. It seems the conservatives left behind a sorry legacy of inability to take decisions, but as with all good politicians, we can expect a book with their memoirs soon. The MM – Merkel memoirs are out: a 700-page brick which I haven’t had time to read. Yet, as the saying goes: “Wir schaffen dass” [trans. “We can handle that”], and then letting others deal with the consequences which is, of course, always the easy thing to do.
Here in Sweden where half of my children live, explosions are now a regular occurrence. It has become so normal that no one notices. In 2023, we had about 140 explosions, and 2024 will surely top that. It is next to ridiculous to note the local police description of such incidents: in Swedish, it is, “Allmänfarlig ödeläggelse!!“ [trans. “general devastation”]. To me, this is an absurd description of a bomb or hand grenade attack at people’s place of living or shops.
This description is an example of the typical Swedish way of “wir schaffen dass.”. In other words, a soft description to minimize the problem! Imagine it: An explosion every 2-3 days in a high level welfare state. No one goes hungry here, and there are systems in place to care for everyone. Well, perhaps that is part of the problem. No one dares to speak out or take any hard decisions. Treatment is king!
Still, on balance, the year has been a good one.
A few decisions are always to be taken at the end of a year to make “room” in the new year.
Monthly publication of PCW
After serious consideration, I have decided to reduce the publication of PCW from bi-weekly to once a month. This means that from 2025, I shall be publishing on the 15th of each month, irrespective of what day of the week that is. In other words, on the 15th, you will find projectcargo-weekly.com in your inbox. So Jan 15th, Feb 15 (Yearbook 2024 issue), 15th March, etc. until the end of the year. The exception will be JULY which will be the only blank month.
PCW will still keep the same format with 3-5 interviews, news, trade intel, great editorials and so on.
Weekly interviews from the archives – every Thursday, we will continue to publish a couple of interviews from the archives inLinkedIn…
Focusing now in the issue at hand… we do provide you with some excellent interviews in this final 2024 publication, and they are:
1. Zenith International Freight Group in the UK, a strong local general & project freight forwarder with global links.
2. Adeona Global, a software company headed by a former CMA CGM, MSC, Martin Bencher executive who should know what software is needed for minimising your inbox clutter.
3. Tianjin Juyuan International Forwarding Co., Ltd. (TJIF) in China, headed by a close friend of mine originally from Hong Kong whom I met in 1987; handling mostly O&G projects.
We, of course, provide you with our featured video of the week which I think you will find interesting as it is the history of 20 years with Liburnia Maritime Group in Croatia. We also have our featured photo of the week, shipping news, trade intel and wise words.
Some of you may find the holidays boring after a while. So if you do, make sure you have downloaded our mobile app where you can listen to or watch many of our interviews during this year. Lots of unabridged (and not advertising interrupted) solid information if you take the time to listen.
Finally, I and the team at PCW wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year of 2025 and See you in Bali if you are attending the CLC Projects & Cross Ocean Global Conference on 05-07 February (welcome to request to join via cross-ocean.com/network-conferences).
Until January 15, 2025, I remain,
With best regards,
Yours sincerely,
Bo H. Drewsen
Editor
Project Cargo Weekly
bo.drewsen@projectcargo-weekly.com
Zenith International Freight Group – Interview
Adeona Global – Interview
Tianjin Juyuan International Forwarding Co., Ltd. (TJIF)
Tianjin, China
Interview with
Mr. Vincent Chan, Senior Project Consultant and Mr. Justin Cao, General Manager
For starters, Vincent, please tell us about the history and ownership of TJIF.
Tianjin Juyuan International Forwarding Co., Ltd. (TJIF) was established in July 2022 as a privately-owned company by a young gentleman. “Juyuan” in Chinese stands for “resources gathering”. This is our objective and willingness.
Even though we are a young and small company, our key personnel in the Company have been experienced in project logistics for 16 – 37 years. Before TJIF, we were working together in one well-known privately-owned project logistics company in Tianjin, which was closed because of the owner’s retirement. Since then, the clients kept contacting Justin for his logistics solutions and opinions, so he made up his mind to establish his own company right after the COVID period.
ESS Project Forwarding (Shanghai) Handles 3500 FRT Project Cargo Shipment
Editor’s Note:
An interesting project cargo shipment was handled recently by ESS in Shanghai. See pictures below
The cargo included tower cranes, steel coils and excavators on a full-liner term basis from Tianjin, China to Dammam, Saudi Arabia — featuring an 80-ton heavy-lift unit.
Contact details:
ESS Project Forwarding (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.,
Kerry Everbright City Tower One, 11/F, No.218,
Tianmu West Road, Jingan District
Shanghai P.R China 200070
上海市静安区天目西路218号, 嘉里不夜城 第一座1103室 邮编200070
Tel: +86 21 5169 6206
Fax: +86 21 5308 5056
Mob: +1 647 891 6106
Email: mahyar.foghani@ess-projects.com
Web: www.ess-projects.com
Shippers eye alternatives as Indian port workers prepare for ‘indefinite’ strike
Editor’s Note:
With India on a roll and competing more and more with China it is NOT good news if their ports will go on strike. However it does seem to be the case as this article from Loadstar suggests.
Indian shippers are braced for major supply chain disruption after dockworkers call for strikes at key ports, claiming the government is still falling short of commitments.
The Loadstar previously reported that a consortium of labour groups in India told port authorities workers would stage indefinite work stoppages across ports from 17 December, in protest at the lack of action to address long-standing labour concerns.
Beijing and Moscow tune in for more Arctic shipping
Editor’s Note:
We can always count on China to place business first with anyone and with any regime in the world. PCW believes that the Western world (re EU) need to start doing the same and much more actively than before. Also in shipping…
Only few days after a Chinese bulk carrier destroyed two cables in the Baltic Sea in what appears as an act of sabotage, top officials from Beijing and Moscow sat down for their first meeting in a joint cooperation body for the Northern Sea Route.
Cyberattack targets Port of Rijeka, data stolen
Editor’s Note:
Internet and on-line is wonderful….but there is a cost too., it also can create disasters for those who are expert criminals online we have seen cases before with terminals being closed due to hacking…
The Port of Rijeka in Croatia was targeted by a cyberattack over the weekend, raising concerns over the breach of sensitive data. The 8Base ransomware group claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the HackManac X profile. The group has set a ransom deadline of 10 December this year.
Asian Development Bank signs deals with Solomon Islands and Tonga to bolster Pacific solar PV
The grant and loan agreements, drafted at COP29 in Azerbaijan, will support the Solomon Islands Renewable Energy Development project, which aims to implement solar PV power plants in the provinces of Guadalcanal and Malaita; and the Tonga Grid Enhancement for Sustainable Energy Transition project, involving the construction of a new electricity network to transmit energy from a solar PV power plant.
SPNEC partners with Energy China for Luzon solar farm
In a report by Inquirer, SPNEC announced that its subsidiary, Terra Solar Philippines, Inc. (TSPI), has completed the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) agreement with Energy China for a section of the solar farm. This section will also house the project’s energy storage system.
Veolia to build Africa’s largest desalination plant in Morrocco
French-based Veolia will build Africa’s largest desalination plant in Morocco. Located on the Atlantic coast near Rabat, the plant will supply drinking water to more than nine million people.
Victoria partners with OX2 on 242 GWh per annum renewable energy park
Located near Horsham, 315 kilometres northwest of Melbourne, the site will incorporate an under-development 119 MW solar farm owned but not yet built by OX2 and will now include a 100 MW two-hour battery energy storage system (BESS).
Liburnia Maritime Agency – Celebration 20 Years
Editor’s Note:
An important company in the Adriatic, Liburnia Maritime headquartered in Rijeka, Croatia recently celebrated their 20th anniversary. A reliable company with a high level of service you may enjoy this video here showing their “voyage”. liburniamar.hr” target=”_blank”
Editor’s Note:
3rd of May, 2024 onboard mv ABB Vanessa of Coli Schiffahrt (coli-group.com) arriving into the land of the rising sun. And what a sunrise it was and the ship in front was indeed there – no photoshop or adjustments here whatsoever!
