Breakbulk Magazine Issue 1 2023

BREAKBULK& WIND IN THE MIDDLE EAST’S SAILS

January-February 2023

DSV’s Mohammad Jaber Discusses the GCC’s New Energy Frontier

INSIDE THIS BREAKBULK MIDDLE EAST ISSUE

People to Meet at Breakbulk Middle East

Unlocking Trade Potential

Servicing India’s Oil Bonanza

Mark Your Calendars for 2023 Breakbulk Events

Breakbulk Middle East 13-14 February, Dubai World Trade Centre, UAE

Breakbulk Europe 6-8 June, Rotterdam Ahoy, Netherlands

Breakbulk Americas 26-28 September, George R. Brown Convention Center, Texas, USA

10 MIDDLE EAST EVENT PEOPLE TO MEET AT BREAKBULK MIDDLE EAST

26 RENEWABLES NEW ENERGY FRONTIER IN THE GCC

Developers Eye Huge Untapped Potential of Offshore Wind

31 THOUGHT LEADER MIDDLE EAST ENERGY OPPORTUNITIES

Movers with the Right Capability to Benefit

32 WOMEN IN BREAKBULK BREAKBULK MUST BRIDGE GENDER DIVIDE ‘Invisibility’ of Women Stalls Progress

36 PORTS & TERMINALS UNLOCKING TRADE POTENTIAL Digital Solutions Driving Growth at MEA Ports and Terminals

39 MIDDLE EAST EVENT EVERYTHING PORTS AT BREAKBULK MIDDLE EAST 2023

40 ENERGY UPDATE SERVICING INDIA’S OIL BONANZA

Crude Projects Set to Surge

44 OPPORTUNITY AFRICA

HYDROPOWER: AFRICA’S BIG GAMECHANGER Projects of All Sizes in the Works

48 INFRASTRUCTURE

EARLY MOVERS HARNESS HYDROGEN PROMISE

Nascent Industry Could be Next Offshore Wind

52 OUTLOOK

DREWRY: MPV MARKET TO STAY RESILIENT

Maritime Consultancy Expects Heavy-lift Fleet Growth in 2023

55 MANUFACTURING

LOSERS OF CHINA’S COVID CLAMPDOWN

Projects Suffer Spiraling Costs, Schedule Nightmares

CREDIT: ROLL GROUP

BUILDING BRIDGES TO THE FUTURE

We’ve officially entered 2023 and what a year it is shaping up to be. While many economists are predicting a recession sometime this year, projects continue to be greenlighted, signaling a period of prosperity for those in our project cargo and breakbulk market. This issue dives into new horizons for project development, building bridges to a future of opportunity, albeit with some bumps along the way.

Of course, this is the Middle East issue as we approach the seventh edition of Breakbulk Middle East, exhibition and conference, February 13-14 in Dubai at the Dubai World Trade Centre. Here, executives who represent key sectors across the industry will gather on the main stage to discuss the topics deemed most important by the event’s Program Advisory Board. The board includes representatives from Fluor, Air Products, DHL Global Forwarding, Myrcator Marine & Cargo Solutions, BBC Chartering, DB Schenker Middle East, ADNOC Logistics & Services, and DSV. (Yes, that’s board member Mohammad Jaber from DSV on the cover!)

In this issue, you’ll find an extensive package of stories beginning on page 25 designed to build the bridge to what’s to come on the main stage. First up is “New Energy Frontier in the GCC,” an eyeopening look at offshore wind potential by Breakbulk senior reporter Simon West. At first glance, offshore wind seems like a non-starter in the region, West says, but with a new partnership between global clean energy operator Masdar and Abu Dhabi’s National Petroleum Construction Company to explore offshore wind opportunities in the UAE, the picture may be very different by the end of this decade.

Other stories in this section include “Unlocking Trade Potential” through digital solutions at MEA ports and terminals, “Servicing India’s Oil Bonanza,”

featuring J. M. Baxi Heavy’s Sameer Parikh who is on the front lines of the boom and whose company is one of the more than 120 exhibitors at Breakbulk Middle East, and “Hydropower: Africa’s Big Gamechanger,” paving the way toward the continent’s electrification in projects big and small.

Then there’s the bridge to close the diversity divide, spearheaded by Breakbulk’s Women in Breakbulk initiative. This issue includes a feature story written by Asma Ali Zain entitled “Breakbulk Must Bridge Gender Divide,” with commentary from Rania Tadros of Stephenson Harwood, L.L.P. in Dubai and Stephanie Schooley of Petrofac. And don’t miss Breakbulk newcomer Christina Struller from UPS who engages in a passionate Q&A about diversity in our UpFront section. Women will have the opportunity to network and offer support to one another at the Women in Breakbulk Breakfast sponsored by Bureau Veritas at Breakbulk Middle East.

While this is the Middle East issue, no Breakbulk issue would be complete without stories offering a global perspective: (“Early Movers Harness Hydrogen Promise,” – could hydrogen be the next offshore wind?), those focused on Europe (“Barriers to Black Sea Gas” and “Ambitious, but Unachievable Targets for European Wind?”), and a look at extreme weather in North America, along with a riveting case study from deugro featuring no less than five Breakbulk exhibitors on its project team.

Bridges are some of the most iconic engineering feats, and I still remember when Fluor and its partners completed the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge 10 years ago. It’s a beautiful bridge, especially at night with its swoops of lights stretching across the bay. It is a symbol of connection, and like that bridge, our aim as Breakbulk Events & Media is to connect you with your peers and with the information you need for success in 2023 and beyond.

Best wishes,

Leslie Meredith Breakbulk’s Marketing & Media Director

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

Leslie Meredith / +1 (801) 201-5971

Leslie.Meredith@breakbulk.com

NEWS EDITOR

Carly Fields carly.fields@hyve.group

SENIOR REPORTER

Simon West simon.west@hyve.group

DESIGNER

Mark Clubb

REPORTERS

Asma Ali Zain

Felicity Landon

Lori Musser

Malcolm Ramsay

Thomas Timlen

Liesl Venter

BREAKBULK EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD

John Amos, emeritus

Amos Logistics

Dennis Devlin

Maersk

Dharmendra Gangrade

Larsen & Toubro Limited

Margaret Kidd

University of Houston

Anders Maul

Blue Water Shipping

Dennis Mottola, emeritus

Global Logistics Consultant

Sarah Schlüter

Hapag-Lloyd

Stephen “Spo” Spoljaric Bechtel Corp

Roger Strevens

Wallenius Wilhelmsen

Jake Swanson

DHL Industrial Projects

Ulrich Ulrichs

BBC Chartering

Johan-Paul Verschuure Rebel Group

Grant Wattman Combi Lift Americas

PORTFOLIO DIRECTOR

Nick Davison nick.davison@hyve.group

MARKETING & MEDIA DIRECTOR

Leslie Meredith leslie.meredith@hyve.group

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The Studios, 2 Kingdom Street Paddington, London W2 6JG, UK

Leslie Meredith

PEOPLE TO MEET AT BREAKBULK MIDDLE EAST

Mohammad Jaber is COO at DSV Abu Dhabi, MD for Air and Sea and a member of the Breakbulk Middle East 2023 Advisory Board. An experienced logistics professional who has also held executive stints at transport specialist Agility, Mohammad is moderating Breakbulk Middle East’s main stage panel session Wind Energy in the UAE: Transportation, Installation and Lessons Learnt. Check out

Mohammad’s take on offshore wind potential in the region in our feature story “New Energy Frontier in the GCC” on pages 26-29.

Stephanie Schooley is a Dubai-based logistics manager for Petrofac, an energy services company, and member of the Breakbulk Global Shipper Network. Stephanie will be speaking on the main stage panel session Business Outlook: Rates, Capacity and Sustainability – one of this year’s hot topics. The executive also gives us her thoughts on opportunities in the industry for women in our “Breakbulk Must Bridge Gender Divide” feature story on pages 32-34.

Mohammad Jaber is moderating Breakbulk Middle East’s main stage panel session Wind Energy in the UAE: Transportation, Installation and Lessons Learnt.

Tina BenjaminLea is Air Products’ project logistics director for all logistics activities at the NEOM Green Hydrogen Project in Saudi Arabia. At Breakbulk Middle East, Tina will be providing some unique insights on NEOM and other projects at a Saudi Arabia Spotlight: The Role of Giga Projects speaker session. For updates across the Middle East, India and Africa, check out our Project Opportunities section on pages 25-47.

Ryan McPherson is director of Middle East, Africa, Russia and CIS for the Middle East branch of the Energy Industry Council. Based in the GCC for more than a decade, Ryan boasts an MBA in oil and gas management and is an expert on the region’s diverse energy markets. The executive, who will be presenting a MENA Project Overview session on February 13 at Breakbulk Middle East, speaks to us about offshore wind in the “New Energy Frontier in the GCC” feature on pages 26-29.

Mohammad Jaber

Stephanie Schooley

Tina Benjamin-Lea

Ryan McPherson

CREDIT: BREAKBULK

IN THIS ISSUE

Dennis Dreier is IT director and senior consultant in IT strategy and digitalization at Hamburg Port Consulting. The executive, who has Ph.D. in applied systems optimization, will be moderating the End-toEnd Logistics: Artificial and Business Intelligence Driving Efficiency in Ports panel session on February 14 at Breakbulk Middle East. Dennis offers us his thoughts on the potential of machine learning in ports and terminals for our Middle East feature story Unlocking Trade Potential on pages 36-38.

Dr. Ferenc Pasztor, deputy head of research at Drewry Shipping Consultants, will be speaking at Breakbulk Middle East about how skyhigh rates are impacting the multipurpose sector. MPV Outlook – Trends, Trade and Fleet will take place on the main stage on February 13. Learn about the consultant’s bullish outlook for the heavy-lift market on pages 52-53.

Peter Rondhuis, CEO of Netherlandsbased transport specialist Roll Group, will provide expert insight at Breakbulk Middle East during the Wind Energy in the UAE: Transportation Installation and Lessons Learnt panel session. In our New Energy Frontier in the GCC feature on pages 26-29, Peter also gives us his take on “exciting” project developments in the Middle East as governments throughout the region embark on ambitious campaigns to boost renewable energy capacity.

Also featured in this issue are the following exhibitors and sponsors of Breakbulk events:

• Middle East

AD Ports Group

Unlocking Trade Potential

Airbus

BBOne

Alexander Global Logistics (AGL)

BBOne

Asyad Terminals Duqm

Unlocking Trade Potential

Bertling Logistics

BBOne

BMT Basra Multipurpose Terminal

BBOne

Broekman Logistics

Losers of China’s Covid Clampdown

deugro

Kilotons of Cargo Moved in the Big Freeze, Losers of China’s Covid Clampdown

DSV

New Energy Frontier in the GCC, Europe Renewables

dteq Transportation Engineering Solutions

Kilotons of Cargo Moved in the Big Freeze

Goldhofer AG

Kilotons of Cargo Moved in the Big Freeze

Hollemann Special Transport & Project Cargo

Barriers to Black Sea Gas

HPC Hamburg Port Consulting

Unlocking Trade Potential

J M Baxi Heavy Servicing India’s Oil Bonanza

Jumbo-SAL-Alliance

Kilotons of Cargo Moved in the Big Freeze

Kita Logistics

Barriers to Black Sea Gas

Mammoet

Kilotons of Cargo Moved in the Big Freeze

Port of Antwerp-Bruges

Early Movers Harness Hydrogen Promise

Port Esbjerg

BBOne

Port of Rotterdam

Early Movers Harness Hydrogen Promise

Roll Group New Energy Frontier in the GCC

Spliethoff Group

Kilotons of Cargo Moved in the Big Freeze

Dennis Dreier

Dr. Ferenc Pasztor

Peter Rondhuis

The People and Businesses that Lead This Thriving Industry

UpFront

WHAT’S INSIDE: Movers & Shakers

One to One: UPS’ Christina Struller Calls for Greater Diversity Awareness

New Faces at Breakbulk Middle East

Influencers: Audrey Murillo Encourage Employees to Take a Deep Look Inward

Meet the Team: Erin Hamby Joins Breakbulk Americas Sales Team

Oversized components transported by Al Faris head towards a gas compressor station in southern Iraq. The Dubai-based breakbulk specialist has been operating in Iraq since December 2020.

CREDIT: AL FARIS

UpFront

A.P. Moller-Maersk

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

Highlighting Recent Industry Hires and Promotions

A.P. MollerMaersk has named company veteran Vincent Clerc as its new CEO. Clerc, currently head of Maersk’s ocean and logistics business, has worked for the Danish shipping group since 1998 and has held various roles in North America and Copenhagen. The executive took over on Jan. 1, 2023 from Soren Skou, who retired from the position after almost seven years.

“On the heels of a pandemic, and now with the war in Ukraine and an energy crisis upon us, there are many tough challenges ahead, challenges that impact us all and where Maersk can make a difference,” Clerc said. “Companies are rethinking their supply chains in this new environment, they are looking for more stability, and more support on their decarbonization journey. This represents an incredible business opportunity for Maersk that we all are eager to seize.”

APM Terminals Bahrain

Maureen Bannerman is moving on from her role as managing director of APM Terminals Bahrain, with chief financial officer Farooq Zuberi taking temporary charge from Jan. 1. APMT operates the multipurpose Khalifa Bin Salman Port, Bahrain’s sole commercial port and a major regional gateway for project cargo and breakbulk.

Bannerman joined APM Terminals in March 2021 after executive stints

with Dubai Airports, Serco and Abu Dhabi Airports, among other companies. During her tenure, Bannerman oversaw a strategic and transformational agenda for the company, strengthened the management team and developed and promoted existing talent, APMT said.

Bechtel

Audrey Murillo has taken on a new role as senior estimator for U.S.based Bechtel’s manufacturing and technology business unit. The executive, who joined the company in 2011, had previously served as estimating lead for Bechtel Global Logistics and a senior T&L specialist.

At Breakbulk Americas 2022 in Houston, Murillo delivered a rousing speech to more than 120 participants at the Women in Breakbulk Breakfast, a popular event that gives female executives from across the supply chain the opportunity to connect with colleagues and share their experiences.

CakeBoxx Technologies

After two-anda-half years at Danish wind turbine supplier KK Wind Solutions, Breakbulk Europe Advisory Board member Thomas Sender Mehl has started a new position at CakeBoxx Technologies, heading up the U.S.based specialized transportation firm’s renewables division in Europe.

Mehl, who boasts more than 25 years’ experience in transport, logistics and supply chain, has also become a board member at Claviate,

a tech start-up that uses its own IoT devices to collect visual data for the wind turbine industry. The executive told Breakbulk he was “excited” to begin this new chapter in his professional life and was looking forward to playing a leading role in the fastgrowing renewables sector.

Diplomat Freight Services

After more than 16 years at Antonov Airlines, Andriy Blagovisniy has started a new role as project cargo sales manager at Diplomat Freight Services UK. Antonov’s former commercial director has worked in the aviation and air charter business for 24 years, specializing in the transport of superheavy cargoes using iconic aircraft such as the AN-124 and AN-225.

“DFS invited me to join the team for development of the company’s business on air charters of oversized project cargo,” Blagovisniy told Breakbulk. “I have been dedicated to this industry for over 20 years and plan to use all my knowledge, experience and business relations with customers to achieve the most effective results in this area for DFS.”

GAC

Breakbulk specialist GAC has named Pontus Fredriksson as its new group president, taking over from Bengt Ekstrand. Fredriksson, who took the helm in January, joined GAC’s finance department in 2007 before becoming managing director of the company’s Bahrain office in

Vincent Clerc

Andriy Blagovisniy

Maureen Bannerman

Pontus Fredriksson

Thomas Sender Mehl

Audrey Murillo

2015. He had been GAC’s group vice president for the Americas since mid2019.

Ekstrand himself, group president since January 2013, will assume the role of executive co-chairman alongside long-time executive chairman, Bjorn Engblom. According to GAC, Ekstrand finishes his decade-long tenure reporting record results in recent years.

Osprey

Wendy Kenny has been promoted to the role of chief operating officer at UK-based heavy transport specialist Osprey. The executive had served as Osprey’s commercial finance director since joining the group in mid-2021.

“My role involves being hands-on at every level. I want to be sure we can show our clients, multi-disciplinary expertise really does permeate through and across our business,” Kenny said.

“Over the last few years, for example, our projects have ranged from loading out the world’s largest tidal turbine off the Scottish coast, to bringing in the most powerful steam turbine down at Hinkley Point. But wherever we are working it is my responsibility to ensure we get every different strand of Osprey’s experience to the table, in the planning and execution of each project.”

Petrofac

Tareq Kawash is set to become Petrofac’s new CEO from April 2023 after Sami Iskander announced he would be stepping down from the role in March to pursue other interests. Kawash will join the UK-based oilfield services provider from

McDermott, where he currently serves as senior vice president for onshore and offshore.

“With 30 years’ international EPC leadership experience, and an impressive business development track record, Tareq is exceptionally well placed to build on the foundations laid by Sami. We look forward to welcoming him to Petrofac,” said Petrofac chairman, René Médori. Petrofac and McDermott are members of the Breakbulk Global Shipper Network.

Seko Logistics

Global logistics provider Seko Logistics has hired Hans Hickler as president of the Americas region. Hickler has worked with Seko for the past seven years through Ellipses Advisors, a firm that specializes in advising high performing CEOs and entrepreneurs.

Among his previous roles, Hickler served as CEO of Asia Pacific at Agility Logistics where he was responsible for more than 20 countries and 7,000 employees. “I could not be more pleased to bring Hans into this role. It requires the right business leader, global thinker, thought partner and entrepreneur – and Hans is all those things and more,” said James Gagne, president and CEO at Seko.

Siemens Gamesa

Wind engineering firm Siemens Gamesa, part of the Germany-based Siemens Group, has appointed

Christian Bruch as its new non-executive chairman, succeeding Miguel Ángel López. Bruch is currently president and CEO of Siemens Energy. Prior to that, the executive held various senior positions at companies such as Linde and renewable energy developer, RWE.

Siemens Gamesa, also a member of the Breakbulk Global Shipper Network, said the changeover was “the logical next step” in the potential takeover and subsequent integration of Siemens Gamesa into Siemens Energy.

UTC Overseas

UTC Overseas has hired former Tradelossa CEO Rafael de los Santos as its new heavy-haul business development director for North America. De los Santos will be based in Mexico focusing primarily on the region’s energy sector, and will work alongside Ivan Oceguera, UTC’s country manager in Mexico.

De los Santos announced in October he was moving on from Tradelossa, the Mexico-based, family-run heavy transport specialist where he had worked for more than 15 years – the last seven as CEO. Prior to that, de los Santos worked with GE in finance, marketing and production. The executive is also a board member with the Specialized Carriers and Rigging Association, or SC&RA, a U.S.-headquartered international trade group.

Hans Hickler

Rafael de los Santos

Wendy Kenny

Tareq Kawash

Christian Bruch

ONE-TO-ONE

Empowered Women Empower Women

UPS’ Christina Struller Calls for Greater Diversity Awareness

In your view, what point have we reached on the gender equality journey in the breakbulk logistics industry?

I believe that we have progressed to a point in terms of diversity, equity and inclusion where we can do away with prefixes such as ‘male’ and ‘female’ and view the industry irrespective of gender. I believe that it is important for male and female leaders to lead by example in creating a better gender balance within their companies and advancing gender equity to build a more inclusive and just workplace, where everyone can thrive. It is imperative that we challenge gender norms by calling out biases in the workplace and encourage open and honest dialogue with other leaders.

However, such culture change warrants a mindset change. Collectively, we must develop a mindset that views females at par with their male counterparts occupying leadership roles as well as operational roles in any industry. Looking at my own organization, I am proud to say that UPS has some great female role models who are breaking glass ceilings not only for other women UPSers but for women everywhere. I take pride in the fact that UPS is led by a woman, our CEO Carol B. Tomé, and she has been a trailblazer for women across the globe.

Please talk us through your career to-date and the challenges you have faced as a woman.

When I joined UPS, I was the only female on the leadership team, as well as the youngest executive and the only one that joined from a non-logistics background.

Like any new job, the journey at the beginning was difficult, I had to work hard to be recognized and included within the team. Eventually, I did earn my deserved seat on the table through maintaining a goal-oriented approach; I did not let any pre-conceived notions or societal norms dictate my success path.

I developed a sense of purpose when I chased my professional goals which were aligned with my own personal values. I remain motivated to advance the collective good of the communities and individuals around us. My internal motivation drives me to look beyond the status quo to what is possible and gives me a persuasive reason to act, notwithstanding my personal fears and insecurities. I promised myself to always be my authentic self, irrespective of the gender mix in the room. The way I established credibility is by showing that I am a team player and that I want everyone on the team to be successful too.

As a woman and as an expert in your field, why do you think diversity is important in this industry?

Having worked in different industries throughout my career, I feel that diversity is important across all industries, and the definition of diversity goes beyond mere labels associated

Christina Struller

with men and women – we need to look as well at race, culture, age, nationality, and abilities.

I firmly believe that diversity isn’t just a tick-a-box exercise; you need to genuinely embrace it to get out most of the benefits it brings to a company. Logistics is a people-driven business and to do good business you want to not only build a great company culture, but you also want to look after your customers’ needs.

As a global leader in logistics, UPS hosts 52 nationalities in the UAE alone. I clearly see how our diverse teams benefit from such culture exchange; this is reflected in the final output and in our bottom line.

What people often don’t discuss is the heightened need for diversity in leadership positions. This is especially important to be able to deliver effectively in a more empowered environment. Our UPS Board of Directors models our commitment to inclusion. 31 percent of our board members are ethnically diverse, and 46 percent are women; and UPS is the first public company in Georgia to have six women directors. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t still work to do – and there are still big steps to be taken across the logistics industry.

Are enough women in this industry given leadership opportunities?

I can confirm to you with pride that UPS walks the talk. There are equivalent opportunities for women to grow

within the company across functions and roles. We know that giving women a fair shot at leadership roles is not only good for their own careers, but it’s good for the economy and the communities around us.

Earlier this year we signed the UAE’s Pledge to Accelerate Gender Balance in the Private Sector in partnership with the UAE Gender Balance Council to increase women’s representation at senior and middle management levels to at least 30 percent by 2025. This initiative is an instrumental enabler of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 5 (Gender Equality) and will have a lasting impact on the public and private sectors in the UAE. To achieve a more equitable society, we are committed to empowering women, especially in leadership and decision-making positions, and we are continuing to lead the way both nationally and internationally.

Personally, I really enjoy mentoring women and providing them support on their career journey, as it is incredibly important to create role models for young female professionals.

At UPS, we are also expanding our initiatives to further our representation of women in operations and management roles, specifically in our hubs and package center facilities. Working with our Women in Operations Business Resource Groups and senior leaders, we are building specific training and development programs to ensure candidates are given the skills, mentoring, and support to successfully advance.

By providing women with equal opportunities, we are going beyond just promoting gender equality; we are creating an environment that unlocks potential, spurs new growth, and contributes to a future that is more inclusive and progressive.

How can women build awareness about their presence in the logistics industry, and engage with communities at large?

I believe empowered women, empower women. Awareness is critical to achieving diversity, equity and inclusion. One great way is to take advantage of company Business Resource Groups (BRGs), which are organizations that serve as an extension of the company’s broader diversity and inclusion strategy. They provide a forum where employees can network, participate in professional development activities, and gain support growing the business. One such group is the UPS Women’s Leadership Development (WLD) BRG, which I get to co-chair in the UAE. The UPS WLD BRG Program focuses on the professional and personal development of its membership through strategic planning initiatives that address the challenges unique to women in business, provide tools necessary for business success, unveil programs and resources that accelerate growth

and profitability for the business as well as the greater community, and encourage leadership.

Women can also join external organizations and women networks, such as the American Chamber of Commerce, Women Business Council, or more industry specific groups such as the National Association of Freight and Logistics – all of those provide amazing networking opportunities and help females to build their brand and great personal and business connections.

What roles are open to women within the breakbulk industry?

The face of the supply chain industry is evolving. Globally, women made up about 39 percent of supply-chain employees, ranging from distribution center workers to C-suite executives, as of May this year, according to research by Gartner. However, these figures were down slightly from 41 percent last year.

There are many exciting roles for women, which keep evolving rapidly. After having spent five years in the logistics sector, I have noticed that more new job roles are opening up for men and women, offering both genders a wide range of exciting career opportunities, including working in sustainability, public affairs, health & safety, community relations, but as well in engineering, marketing, sales, security, and operational roles including brokerage. The opportunities are limitless!

Logistics is a fast-paced business where you get to work with a diverse set of customers, partners and colleagues. For me the four best parts of my job are that I get to meet amazing individuals, that I have opportunities to make positive impacts on the life of people and communities, that my personal values are aligned with UPS’ values, and that UPS enables employees to take advantage of amazing growth opportunities around the world.

Christina Struller is vice president, corporate affairs, Indian Subcontinent, Middle East and Africa, for UPS.

“What people often don’t discuss is the heightened need for diversity in leadership positions. This is especially important to be able to deliver effectively in a more empowered environment”

– Christina Struller, UPS

Meet the New Exhibitors at Breakbulk Middle East

This year’s event has attracted 50 companies that are new to Breakbulk Middle East and some that are new to the Breakbulk experience altogether. Breakbulk spoke to four company executives to learn more about their brands and reasons for exhibiting.

Lars Feller, President, dship Carriers

1. What is the most interesting aspect of your business?

The most intriguing aspects of dship’s business are based on some very forward-thinking fundamentals.

Take sustainability, for example. We have committed to it in several ways: first, in the more conventional sense, by ordering low-eco-consumption vessels even before the sustainability debate had reached its peak; and second, by investing in expertise and women in logistics. As a result, women currently make up 50 percent of dship’s charter and operations staff, even before diversity, equity, and inclusion became a hot topic – something we can be truly proud of.

Moreover, five years ago, dship began establishing a close-knit team with a high level of expertise, with each member having at least 10 years of experience in the shipping industry, if not far more.

In addition to that, we have several younger professionals working side by side with highly experienced staff members, to ensure their best possible development and prepare them for the future.

We are global and inclusive, so we certainly meet, if not exceed, the requirements of a global shipping company.

2. What made your company want to exhibit at Breakbulk Middle East?

The global shipping community, especially in the breakbulk niche market, is in some ways a very close community.

Breakbulk Middle East is a unique and much appreciated opportunity for dship Carriers to meet face-to-face with partners and clients in this region.

Since the pandemic has severely limited the possibilities for such interactions over the past two years, it is of even greater importance to our team to seize opportunities like this and meet our clients where they are located, be it in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, the Americas, or Asia.

3. What is your company’s outlook on project opportunities in the Middle East and Africa?

dship is active in all parts of the world, and we see the

future developments in the Middle East. We are equally aware of renewable energy investments in Africa.

The Middle East and Africa have always been important markets and dship will not overlook these regions, quite the contrary.

As the project shipping industry is built on long-term relationships, discussing ongoing and future projects is key to both providing and supporting the necessary investments in our industry. dship is committed to delivering reliable and safe solutions for current and upcoming projects, and we look forward to discussing these with project owners and shipping partners in February 2023.

Visit dship Carriers at stand G02 in Dubai. The company will also be exhibiting at Breakbulk Europe, June 6-8 in Rotterdam.

Vincent Elfring, Senior Vice President, Envecon and LogStar

1. What is the most interesting aspect of your business?

Envecon is unique in its capability to provide a full end-to-end business application platform to the ports and terminal industry. With our integrated ERP (finance, procurement, inventory, human capital, payroll), EAM (asset and equipment management), TOS (marine, container, bulk, breakbulk and roro) and billing (contract management and invoicing) products we deliver tangible business outcomes across the complete value chain of our customers. Envecon is the digital transformation partner of choice for more than 100 ports and terminals in 55 countries.

2. What made your company want to exhibit at Breakbulk Middle East?

We want to reconnect and meet our many existing customers and partners in Africa and the Middle East again and are excited to showcase our products and services to new prospects. Breakbulk Middle East provides the perfect platform for that.

Lars Feller

Bronze Sponsor

Vincent Elfring

3. What is your company’s outlook on project opportunities in the Middle East and Africa?

Envecon is very bullish about the economic growth and opportunities in the Middle East and Africa with all the public and private infrastructure investments taking place in the logistics industry across the region. We already see a big uptick in demand for our solutions and services in the market with many new projects secured and many more in the pipeline.

Clydean Gurrea, IT and Marketing Executive, IMGS Group

1. What is the most interesting aspect of your business?

IMGS Group specializes in customized cargo management, logistics, and maritime advisory. Through its growing network of 65 ports and inland destinations, IMGS Group has the agility and scale to serve its customers seamlessly, effectively, and securely across the globe.

2. What made your company want to exhibit at Breakbulk Middle East?

1. What is the most interesting aspect of your business?

We are a specialist of the Middle Silk Road corridor, the part that covers the Caucasus and Central Asia, and we are used to the many geographical and intermodal challenges that you can meet on this route.

2. What made your company want to exhibit at Breakbulk Middle East?

Our route has become of prime importance since the closure of the Volga-Don canal, so we want to offer more visibility and perspectives to our potential clients.

3. What is your company’s outlook on project opportunities in the Middle East and Africa?

We just opened a new subsidiary in Kazakhstan, so we see ourselves as the link between MEA and Central Asia.

As one of the largest gatherings of breakbulk and project cargo professionals this year, Breakbulk Middle East is the perfect platform to showcase and promote our company, strengthen and build strategic relationships, engage and gain insights from different companies across the globe, and lastly, show support for this thriving industry.

3. What is your company’s outlook on project opportunities in the Middle East and Africa?

We continue to focus on CSR initiatives in Africa especially. We are all coming out from a very difficult time, and our core focus, for now, is on re-investing in our team, people, and the communities in which we operate.

Visit HHLA Project Logistics LLC at stand A48 in Dubai. The company will also be exhibiting at Breakbulk Europe, June 6-8 in Rotterdam.

Visit Envecon at stand A35 in Dubai.

Korneli Korchilava, Managing Director, HHLA Project Logistics LLC

Visit IMGS Group at stand B02 in Dubai.

Korneli Korchilava

Clydean Gurrea

H44 A.R.T. Logistics

NEW EXHIBITORS AT BREAKBULK MIDDLE EAST 2023

Freight Forwarder

H50 Agence de Prestations Maritimes   Maritime Transport

E63 Anglo Galleon Int’l Shipping Freight Forwarder

A21 Ant Dynamics Industry-related Services

H38 Aprojects

Freight Forwarder

H16 Arabian Chemical Terminals Abu Dhabi Ports & Terminals

B63 Arkan Sohar Logistic Freight Forwarder

G30 BDP (A Member Of The Psa Group) Freight Forwarder

A62 Boxxport Gmbh   Industry-related Services

F32 Bruhat Logistics

Freight Forwarder

H35 Ceta Logistics & Projects Freight Forwarder

E03 Concord Road Transport Road Transport

H21 Consult Navigation Agency – Suez Canal Authority Maritime Transport

H31 Cordstrap – “The Passion to Protect” Equipment

A49 Crest Container Lines   Industry-related Services

A11 Dark Blue Shipping   Freight Forwarder

D02 Delta Corp Holdings Maritime Transport

F50 DHL IP   Freight Forwarder

G02 dship Carriers

Maritime Transport

A35 Envecon Global Solution Private Limited    Industry-related Services

E44 Erhardt Projects

Freight Forwarder

A50 Expeditors Freight Forwarder

H48 Five Ocean Industry-related Services

H18 G.M.B International Shipping Freight Forwarder

G43 G2 Ocean Industry-related Services

B49 GAMA IT

H52 Genmar.SA Freight Forwarder

H15 GSR Network Industry-related Services

B41 Gürkan Nakliyat Maritime Transport

A48 HHLA Project Logistics   Industry-related Services

H37 ICT Innovative Container Technologies Equipment

B02 IMGS Group   Industry-related Services

G55 Jassper Shipping Maritime Transport

F20 J.M. Baxi Group   Ports & Terminals

A35 Logstar Industry-related Services

H11 Milaha (Qatar Navigation) Industry-related Services

E60 Namma Cargo Services Co. Ltd. Freight Forwarder

B48 Navis IT

F55 NEOFLEX

Industry-related Services

B56 NMT International Shipping Dubai   Industry-related Services

A31 Pak Shaheen Group

Industry-related Services

D03 Portec-Link & KOCH Solutions Ports & Terminals

A02 Rajab Cargo Services

Freight Forwarder

G11 Roll Group   Road Transport

H47 Sai Wan Shipping Limited Maritime Transport

F40 Sealand Project Line Pte Freight Forwarder

H45 Seatech Shipping & Projects (I) Freight Forwarder

H17 Selina Shipping Lines Freight Forwarder

F30 Shenship

Industry-related Services

E50 Spark Logistics Ports & Terminals

B62 Super Ocean International FZC Maritime Transport

A25 Verstegen Grabs Equipment

NEW EXHIBITORS BY INDUSTRY SECTOR

NEW EXHIBITORS BY COUNTRY

By Audrey Murillo

INFLUENCERS

Being Smarter Together

Encourage Employees to Take a Deep Look Inward

Audrey Murillo

The topics of diversity and inclusion have been in the spotlight for a few years now and although the two concepts are interconnected, they are not interchangeable. Diversity is about representation in a given entity. Inclusion is about how well the contributions, perspectives and presence of all the individuals from that entity are being heard and valued. Or in the words of Vernā Myers: “Diversity is being invited to the party; inclusion is being asked to dance.”

If we get past the buzzwords and look at the data that has been collected over the years, we quickly see that there are many reasons why diversity and inclusion bring business value, whether centered on fairness or company performance. If we look at performance, we see that entities are more successful if they are diverse. But diversity without inclusion is not enough: without fairness, respect, a sense of safety and belonging, employees will not speak up or do their best work. The people from an outside group will bring fresh ideas, perspectives and ways of solving problems. Their presence will also push the majority group to think twice about their assumptions and the solidity of their own way of addressing issues. In other words, we get smarter as we work together.

Being smarter together and bringing the best out of each other is critical in demonstrating that diversity and inclusion is not a zero-sum game where one person’s gain is equivalent to another’s loss. Everyone gains something and is able to pursue continued growth.

Minority Report

In the transportation and warehousing industry, women currently represent less than 25 percent of the workforce. According to McKinsey’s 2022 Women in the Workplace report, in 2021 women leaders left companies at the highest rate in years, and the gap between women and men leaving was the largest it has been. In today’s market and global economy, the stakes are high, and companies cannot afford to not be at their best, which means they cannot afford to lag in their commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Employers have a huge role to play in ensuring greater awareness and understanding of what a diverse workforce and inclusive culture can bring.

In recent years, Bechtel has approached its diversity and inclusion strategy with a heightened sense of urgency. The company further institutionalized leadership commitment to diversity and inclusion, strengthened resource groups dedicated to supporting underrepresented groups and career development, and implemented programs aimed at strengthening inclusive culture. One of the programs we have implemented that resonates across the company is Catalyst’s MARC (Men Advocating Real Change). The program challenges all participants to take a deep look

inward to identify unconscious bias and helps them develop the tools to interrupt non-inclusive behaviors. We have seen more and more colleagues implementing the tools offered by MARC and committing to being the change they want to see happen at Bechtel. The commitment to being smarter together is present across the enterprise.

Change takes time and requires getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. What I have seen at Bechtel has been nothing short of amazing.

Audrey Murillo is senior estimator for indirects at Bechtel Manufacturing & Technology and a Women in Breakbulk member. To join this professional networking group, visit https://breakbulk.com/page/women-in-breakbulk

See Diversity story on page 32

ONE-TO-ONE

Houston-Based Executive Sits Down for a Quick Chat About Her New Role

We are delighted to welcome Erin Hamby to the Breakbulk Americas sales team. The experienced Houston-based account handler spoke with Breakbulk about her new role and what it takes to be a great salesperson.

Q: How do you feel about joining Breakbulk Events & Media?

A: I’m so excited! It feels fantastic to be part of such a thriving industry that has deep historical roots in an ecosystem that connects people all over the world.

Q: What attracted you to this role, and in particular the breakbulk and project cargo sector?

A: My experience in sales and my desire to be a part of a business that impacts global economic growth.

Q: What are the key elements in building great business relationships?

A: Transparency, tenacity, flexibility, and passion.

Q: What can your new clients expect?

A: I like to have a full understanding of who my customers are and exactly what they are looking for. I am prompt in providing resolutions and enjoy making them feel taken care of.

Q: What do you enjoy doing outside of work?

A: I love the outdoor life – spending time with my husband and two boys surfing, or out on the bikes or playing golf. I also love to cook and experiment with exciting new cuisines.

Q: Do you have any advice for women who are thinking about a career in the industry?

A: Believe in yourself and take a step back to gain perspective on what is happening in the industry momentarily.

Breakbulk Americas 2023, the region’s largest event for the breakbulk and project cargo industry, will take place September 26-28 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas.

The George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas. CREDIT: BREAKBULK

Erin Hamby

MIDDLE EAST OPPORTUNITY

PROJECT OPPORTUNITIES

Identifying project business across the Middle East, India and Africa

IN THIS SECTION

New Energy Frontier in the GCC Developers Eye Huge Untapped Potential of Offshore Wind

Middle East Energy Opportunities

Movers with the Right Capability to Benefit

Breakbulk Must Bridge Gender Divide

‘Invisibility’ of Women Stalls Progress

Unlocking Trade Potential

Digital Solutions Driving Growth at MEA Ports and Terminals

Everything Ports at Breakbulk Middle East 2023 Meet the Ports & Terminals Sector Exhibitors

Servicing India’s Oil Bonanza

Projects of All Sizes in the Works

Hydropower: Africa’s Big Gamechanger

Crude Projects Set to Surge

Visit middleeast.breakbulk.com

NEW ENERGY FRONTIER IN THE GCC

Developers Eye Huge Untapped Potential of Offshore Wind BY

Excitement continues to mount among breakbulk movers in the Middle East as governments throughout the region press ahead with ambitious plans to pivot their economies towards more sustainable forms of energy production.

While the Gulf Cooperation Council remains heavily dependent on oil and gas – by the end of last year, fossil fuels accounted for 72 percent of the US$631 billion estimated capital expenditure on regional energy projects, according to the London-based Energy Industries Council – announcements of big infrastructure projects for cleaner energies such as onshore wind, solar, hydrogen and nuclear – all of which require significant breakbulk support – are starting to come thick and fast.

One industry in the region, though, remains untapped: offshore wind.

According to the EIC, just two projects in the GCC are in the pipeline: a 500-megawatt, or MW, floating offshore windfarm in Saudi Arabia being developed by Abu Dhabi-based Plambeck Emirates, and an offshore facility

in Bahrain . Both are slated to come online in 2027.

Speaking to Breakbulk, Mohammad Jaber, COO at DSV Abu Dhabi and MD for Air and Sea, pointed to several possible reasons for the slow-paced buildout compared with other parts of the world.

“When we look at renewable energy in the region, solar power systems offer a higher return on investment, especially with our long days and heat levels,” he said.

“Maintenance and operating costs also support more investment in solar projects for the same amount of energy production. A large part of the region too has very high potential for oil and gas exploration in those same sea areas.”

Jaber, who sits on the Breakbulk Middle East Advisory Board, a group

SIMON WEST

of industry professionals brought together to help shape the program for this year’s event, said another key factor was safety and security.

“You can see a lot of those areas are very active for marine traffic, like the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf, while [there are] some geopolitical challenges that would increase the investment risks in those areas,” he said.

GRADUAL WIND POWER BUILDOUT

Mohammed Atif, Middle East area manager for DNV, an Oslo-based technical adviser to the energy and maritime industries, said despite the GCC housing some of the world’s largest clean energy projects, the expansion of onshore capacity in absolute and percentage terms compared with other regions has been more gradual.

“In those places [in the GCC] where renewables have gained traction in terms of solar and wind, it has obviously been onshore. And that is to do with both cost and complexity,” Atif said.

Top: Offshore wind is expected to boom in the Middle East. CREDIT: LONDON ARRAY LIMITED

Mohammad Jaber

DSV

“Unlike in Europe where you have stringent permitting and environmental issues – a lot of ‘not in my backyard’ concerns – the governments here have more land, and have a more streamlined process to allocate that land for onshore projects. So, you do not necessarily want to go offshore if you have plenty of access to onshore sites.”

The Dubai-based consultant also pointed to geographical constraints. “You have some very good offshore resources around Oman and near the Atlantic area around Morocco. But generally speaking, there are not that many very high impact offshore areas; there are some, but nowhere near as many as perhaps you have got off the coasts of North and South America, the UK, the North Sea and Europe, for example.”

A non-starter, then? Actually, not quite. The good news for breakbulk and project cargo is that the tide may be turning, with leading developers starting to dip their toes into this nascent market.

In addition to the two projects already in development, clean energy operator Masdar, for example, last year announced it was partnering with National Petroleum Construction Company, or NPCC, to explore renewable energy opportunities in the UAE.

According to an MoU signed in May, the two Abu Dhabi-based firms will initially focus on offshore wind before directing their attention to other sectors including green hydrogen and battery storage technologies.

Masdar, whose Abu Dhabi office was unable to provide Breakbulk with additional information on their plans in the UAE, is one of the world’s largest clean energy developers with operations in more than 40 countries.

The company, a venture between Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, or ADNOC, Abu Dhabi National Energy Company and Mubadala Investment Company, is targeting a renewable energy portfolio capacity of at least 100 gigawatts, or GW, by 2030, and an annual green hydrogen

production capacity of up to 1 million tonnes by the end of the same period.

Masdar may be a first mover in the UAE, but, according to experts, others are set to follow as technology improves and costs come down.

TEMPERED OFFSHORE PROMISE

In its Energy Transition Outlook 2022 , DNV expects the Middle East and Africa, or MEA region, to boast some 18 GW of installed fixed offshore wind capacity by the end of the decade. By 2050, fixed offshore capacity will have expanded to 78 GW, along with a further 14 GW of floating capacity.

On a global scale, such figures are relatively modest – in the same

report, DNV said China and Europe could house 609 GW and 367 GW of offshore wind capacity, respectively, by 2050 – but would still hand project logistics a steady stream of cargo-carrying contracts for decades to come.

The Global Wind Energy Council’s outlook for the Gulf is even more bullish.

The organization estimates that Oman alone boasts 61 GW of fixed and 118 GW of floating offshore wind potential within 200 kilometers of its shoreline, with the most prospective areas located off its gusty, southern Arabian Sea coast.

According to Atif, the gamechanger for Oman could be green hydrogen.

This map shows the estimated technical potential for fixed and floating offshore wind in Oman in terms of installed power capacity in megawatts (MW) within 200 kilometers of the shoreline. For more information visit: https://gwec.net/oreac/

Offshore Wind Technical Potential in Oman

RENEWABLES

Blessed with one of the highest levels of solar irradiance in the world, the sultanate has set its sights on becoming a world-leader in renewable hydrogen and ammonia production, with several large-scale projects already in development.

The country is targeting output of 1.25 million tonnes of green hydrogen by 2030.

To fast-track its hydrogen ambitions, Oman late last year established a green hydrogen procurement company, Hydrom. DNV has been brought on board to provide technical advice to the new entity.

Such plans would require the deployment of thousands of wind turbines and solar panels to produce energy to power water desalination and electrolysis plants that in turn would make zero-carbon hydrogen.

“If the industry moves ahead as planned, you are going to swallow up those landsites where you have your onshore wind and solar resources significantly faster than you would have

done otherwise,” Atif said. “By 2030 to 2035 you would probably start to look at offshore resources.”

LOOK BEYOND 2030

Ryan McPherson, director of Middle East, Africa, Russia and CIS for the EIC’s Middle East branch, agreed that large-scale buildout would likely take off post-2030.

“There is no doubt we are seeing positive movements for the sector to kick off. But this will depend on how consistent the region is with future project announcements, and subsequently if other strong financial support and regulatory legislations are made specifically for offshore wind development to back this,” he said.

“The GCC has a number of advantages that make it a great location for offshore wind projects to which our members (mostly medium and small size energy supply chain companies) from around the world can contribute to in different capacities. The region is home to major oil and gas companies,

infrastructure and expertise, which are easy to diversify to offshore wind. EIC members working in the North Sea have plenty of experience in this regard and are able to contribute to diversifying the activities of companies working in the GCC to offshore wind.

“GCC countries can also produce wind turbines locally as they have metals and plastics required to produce turbines daily. On top of that, the GCC is home to companies such as Masdar that holds stakes in projects in other regions such as the Dudgeon offshore wind farm in Norfolk and Hywind floating wind farm in Scotland. There is also that drive for green hydrogen.”

As offshore wind development needs time to ramp up, in the meantime the GCC’s focus on onshore renewable projects is translating into serious opportunities for the logistics supply chain.

In the UAE, further expansion work is being planned at the Mohammed bin

Roll Group has formed an alliance with ADNOC Logistics and Shipping to jointly implement heavy haulage solutions for both onshore and offshore projects in the GCC.

CREDIT: ROLL GROUP

Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park close to Dubai, billed as the world’s largest single-site solar PV facility to operate under an independent power producer, or IPP model.

The project, which is being implemented by the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, or DEWA, is aiming to generate 5 GW by 2030, with investments worth about US$13.6 billion. It currently has a capacity of 1.6 GW.

McPherson pointed to Dubai’s Clean Energy Strategy 2050, which has set a target of producing 100 percent of Dubai’s power from green energy sources by 2050. “As a result, we believe the UAE will massively ramp up its renewable energy capacity to achieve this goal.”

Elsewhere, Kuwait’s over-reliance on crude has triggered efforts to diversify its industrial base, with the government aiming to source 15 percent of electricity generation from renewables by the end of the decade.

Plans are already in place to rapidly expand capacity through a series of

commercial-scale onshore wind, solar and hydrogen facilities. Some projects are starting to take shape, such as the four-phase Shagaya renewable energy plant, which is calling for a planned 4 GW of capacity by 2030.

‘EXCITING’ PLANS IN THE REGION

Peter Rondhuis, CEO of transport specialist Roll Group, said developments in the GCC were “very exciting.”

The Netherlands-headquartered company recently announced it had formed an alliance with ADNOC Logistics and Shipping to jointly implement heavy haulage solutions for both onshore and offshore projects in the GCC.

As part of the deal, Roll Group set up a permanent base at ADNOC’s Mussafah Offshore Supply Base close to Abu Dhabi, the largest integrated logistics base in the Gulf.

“Roll Group is just now completing the delivery of the UAE’s first wind energy project and we are seeing many

other wind energy projects of much greater size being developed across the region in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman,” he said.

“Many of these projects are of course being developed together with solar PV projects to power hydrogen plants and this is in fact the sector that we think has major potential for the region. If you look back a couple of years, there was almost no mention of hydrogen projects and right now there are already 18 projects in the pipeline just for the UAE.”

Rondhuis was also optimistic for the region’s offshore wind prospects.

“We are seeing major developments in all areas of the world. Despite the low pipeline, we are convinced that the Gulf will also have more projects in the years to come. And we know from experience that the GCC is very effective, with short periods between planning and execution.” BB

“We are seeing major developments in all areas of the world. Despite the low pipeline, we are convinced that the Gulf will also have more projects in the years to come. And we know from experience that the GCC is very effective, with short periods between planning and execution.”

– Peter Rondhuis, Roll Group

Simon West is senior reporter at Breakbulk.

THOUGHT LEADER

Middle East Energy Opportunities

Movers with the Right Capability to Benefit

This year we have seen the energy sector comprehensively embark on a course of diversification into cleaner forms of energy. Governments worldwide have turned their net zero pledges into plans and projects, creating massive opportunity across the sector and those affiliated, including for breakbulk.

Our latest Country Insight Report on the United Arab Emirates reveals that by 2026 the UAE alone could produce 25 percent of the world’s clean hydrogen, with six projects costing about US$1.66 billion already in development in the Gulf state. The UAE is also home to the Al Reyadah carbon capture, usage and storage commercial-scale plant, the first of its kind in the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia is looking to increase its wind production to generate 16 gigawatts of electricity from it by 2030 and ramp up gas production. The UAE is also working on shoring up gas and oil production, with plans to increase oil output capacity from 4 million barrels per day now to 6 million barrels a day by 2030. With 56 percent of new global energy project proposals announced up to September of this year being in the clean sector, we are looking at a large infrastructure change and demand for supplies.

By Ryan McPherson

All of these threads – diversification, net zero, geopolitics – are being woven together to create a global opportunity for work and development and the ability to grow and export. To do that, we need capability.

At the EIC, as one of the world’s biggest trade associations, we are mindful of the challenges that these all present; it is not just capability, but the capacity to deliver. Those who are in a position to deliver first mover status have the ability to capture a larger share of the market.

Moving project cargo – electrolyzers, small nuclear reactors, turbines, blades – across all of these areas and nations means we are looking at logistical pressures and will rely on expertise. That’s before we add carbon capture into the mix.

We see our members taking steps now to be in a position to deliver, and working in partnership with others is key.

During times like this we see shoring up of support and returning to tried and tested methods – and that works for the supply chain. Add to this the bow wave of projects we see coming, and our members are positioning to capitalize. At an exciting time for industry and businesses we stand to deliver huge gains.

Through our office in the Middle East, we liaise regularly with members,

BY RYAN MCPHERSON

many of whom are global so also have that perspective to give, while our data analysts provide high-quality market data, projections and insight to government officials and key policy makers. We facilitate and encourage those conversations to ensure that we can flag the areas we need to support in order to deliver, and supply chain capability is one of those areas. With the right logistical support in the right place at the right time, the Middle East region can really deliver. Not just for this region, but globally as expertise and ability is proven. BB

Ryan McPherson is director, Middle East, Africa, Russia & CIS for the Middle East branch of the Energy Industries Council.

CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK

BREAKBULK MUST BRIDGE GENDER DIVIDE

‘Invisibility’ of Women Stalls Progress

Empowered women help economies thrive, fueling growth and development around the world. Research clearly shows that improved economic growth and better commercial business performance go hand-inhand with increased gender equality. Some industries dominated by men, however, are far from achieving an ideal balance of power, which means women have to go above and beyond to break the glass ceiling.

Women make up a mere two percent (around 24,000) of the world’s maritime industry, including the 1.2 million seafarers. As a subset, the gender ratio in breakbulk logistics and project cargo mirrors that breakdown. Despite their low presence and workplace challenges, including in the Middle East, women are bringing diversity by slowly entering the industry, some taking positions at the very top.

So, what can inspire more young women to join the global maritime workforce?

With industry experience of over 25 years, renowned shipping and oil

and gas lawyer, Rania Tadros said that men leading by example can help for a start.

“Someone once said that there are no role models and I interpreted that there were no role models for women but then I realized that she was talking about role models for men.”

Originally from Egypt, Tadros is a managing partner at Stephenson Harwood, LLP in Dubai and represents an array of energy clients, ship owners, transportation companies and P&I clubs in a wide range of shipping-related disputes. She has considerable expertise in both arbitration and litigation.

“You see, men can’t see women performing these roles, so they don’t think about it. They don’t understand that a woman can perform a

BY ASMA ALI ZAIN

role even if she has a family or not or whatever her circumstances are because they’ve never seen it so they can’t imagine it.

“On rigs, it means being away for months so probably men assume that women can’t be away for so long from their families. And the reality is that this has been the situation because women haven’t done it; but I don’t think there is a physical impediment to this. It is all about attitude and giving them an example.”

GENDER LEARNING CURVE

Tadros, who joined a law firm in the maritime industry in 1998 in the UK and started work with a female partner, said she did not have any fears about the industry being male dominated. “I also had gone to an all women university, so I hadn’t been exposed to any sort of discrimination because of the fact that I was a woman.”

Over the years, however, the conversation changed as she gained experience.

“Slowly things did suggest that I was disadvantaged and that male

Rania Tadros

Stephenson Harwood

domination in the industry was an issue. For example, once I had to go on board a rig to take evidence and there were no women on the rig –all men. I felt strange but it was all fine.”

In terms of the industry itself, there are very few female crew aboard vessels. “The number of women masters and rig leaders is very few and even fewer are able to get leadership opportunities in these environments, which is partly because there are so few of them in the whole system,” Tadros explained.

She added: “If we look at the maritime legal field, there are a lot of women partners but if you look at the proportion, it is very small. In any law firm and their shipping team, they will have 50-60 percent women at the junior level and only 20-30 percent who are partners. So there is a real imbalance. They are coming through the system, but they are not going all the way through and there are lots of reasons for that; but I think that we now have more women being given leadership opportunities.”

For industry leader Stephanie Schooley, the experience has been very different.

The logistics manager, who currently works at Petrofac in Sharjah, has worked in a number of industries that are pre-dominantly male oriented. From manufacturing to the auto industry to oil and gas and then supply chain and logistics, Schooley has been part of workplaces where women only held HR and administrative positions.

“I’ve kind of unintentionally put myself in male-dominated industries. In some places, I was one of only two women out of 200 men,” she said.

Schooley, who has been based in the Middle East since 2015, said that there are only a handful of women in this field area and they are often overlooked.

“I never really had any negative experiences. But what I’ve noticed is that women are completely overlooked. They’re not the first on someone’s mind when a position

comes up. Men don’t immediately consider that the women sitting there are perfectly capable and have transferable skills to do that job.”

In the auto industry, she added, it was a struggle to find women production supervisors. “There were maybe two or three women out of at least 50 men. I was young and was relatively new, so men gave me a hard time, but I managed and didn’t take it personally.”

Now, as a logistics manager, Stephanie is hiring freight forwarders and dealing with different service providers which is a challenge in itself.

“Even though it’s a male-dominated industry, I’ve had tremendous

support from male leadership, especially here in the Middle East, despite the cultural challenges and language barriers.”

WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP

Interestingly, these women share an insight that their leadership positions were relative to their geographical location.

“If I’m honest, I think I was given the leadership opportunity because I came to the UAE. Historically, women who’ve worked very long hours and pushed a little bit harder have gotten leadership opportunities,” Tadros said.

Likewise, Schooley agreed that professional growth can be relative

Stephanie Schooley.

CREDIT: STEPHANIE SCHOOLEY

“Even though it’s a maledominated industry, I’ve had tremendous support from male leadership, especially here in the Middle East, despite the cultural challenges and language barriers.”

– Stephanie Schooley, Petrofac

to your location. “Although it was tough, I got a leadership position when I came to the Middle East. I heard about the position, and they decided that they wouldn’t be sending a woman to the Middle East, which is a North American situation perspective, but because of my ability, my drive and willingness, I got the job. I feel like sometimes women are afraid of asking questions because they feel it makes them look weak, but I think that, in fact, it shows initiative.”

Why is diversity important in the workplace? The International Maritime Organization points out that investment in women gives a progressive boost not only to communities and companies, but even to countries by improving economic growth and commercial business performance through increased gender equality.

“I think diversity is important in the workplace, not just from a woman’s perspective, but culturally as well. You need as much input and influence and experiences and

information [as possible] to collectively form a better decision,” Tadros said.

“I do think I bring something different. I do bring diversity and I do sometimes think differently because of where I come from,” she added.

According to Tadros, although women need to set leadership examples, they also need to have their own style.

“I lead in my own way and that gives other women an example, which I guess is positive but at the same time, my way is only one way. Other women might want a different leadership style. And if they don’t act in the same way, they feel that they can’t progress.”

Schooley added that she doesn’t know very many women in leadership positions in the field. “Things are certainly moving but not significantly and proportionately. We’re probably less than five to 10 percent, maybe even less than that in this field.”

She also says that women need to create opportunities for themselves by putting in the extra effort. “You can’t wait for them to come to you because they won’t. You have to ask for what you want. If you hear of an opportunity, you have to raise your hand and say ‘I’m willing to do it’.

“I was in my 20s and had to work seven days a week. I had to go above and beyond, more than what a typical male would. In 2007, I went on maternity leave and then the recession hit. I was lucky to retain my job. The point I’m trying to make here is that women can lose their momentum while men don’t.”

To build awareness about their presence in male-dominated industries, women need to place more confidence in their knowledge, Tadros added.

In the breakbulk and project cargo industry, women need expertise because of the specialization. “Generally, women don’t have as much confidence in their own knowledge as much as guys do. It’s a huge generalization, but because it’s an extra ultra-specialized industry, I think this feeds the lack of confidence as well,” she added.

But, as Schooley concluded, there are a lot of women who have an incredible amount of knowledge in this industry; “they just need to be willing to put themselves out there and say ‘I can do this’.” BB

Asma Ali Zain is a Dubai-based journalist with over 20 years’ experience in writing for and editing business-to-business publications.

CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK

“I think diversity is important in the workplace, not just from a woman’s perspective, but culturally as well. You need as much input and influence and experiences and information [as possible] to collectively form a better decision.”

– Rania Tadros, Stephenson Harwood

UNLOCKING TRADE POTENTIAL

Digital Solutions Driving Growth at MEA Ports and Terminals

Since its launch in 2016, Maqta Gateway, the digital arm of AD Ports Group in Abu Dhabi, has been on a mission to transform port communities through innovation and usher in a new era of digitalized trade and logistics.

Among the many tech-based offerings it has developed and operates is the Gulf Cooperation Council’s first digitalized port community system, a mobile app that enables real-time updates on the status of shipments as they reach their destination and a blockchain solution for global logistics dubbed Silsal, or “chain” in Arabic.

Blockchain, widely used by cryptocurrencies, is a decentralized ledger that can offer a single contact point for all stakeholders involved in a project. Information is stored in so-called blocks and linked together using secure cryptography.

Silsal, the first of its kind in Abu Dhabi, allows importers and exporters to track and manage in real-time all data related to the movement of cargo and documents, saving time by cutting the need for paperwork, conference calls and physical visits.

“Technology is a crucial driver for the future of the shipping, logistics and trade industry, and blockchain is a key step in the digitalization of trade,” said Dr. Noura Al Dhaheri, CEO of Maqta Gateway, shortly after the launch of Silsal.

“Not only have we introduced our own blockchain offering, but we have also invented our own form of digital identity. This will eliminate the need for access through passwords, which can often be a security risk.”

During the pandemic, AD Ports Group deployed a blockchain-based system – called mUnity – to manage the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines. The technology, custom-built by Maqta Gateway, was able to track and trace vaccine sourcing, storage, shipment and all related data at every stage

BY SIMON WEST

of the vaccine journey, from manufacturing to arrival at vaccination centers in the UAE.

EYEING OPPORTUNITY

The well-worn trope of shipping and logistics being slow to embrace the switch from manual to digital is now looking worn-out. The industry is shaking off its reputation as a “dinosaur” (as one executive recently told Breakbulk) and starting to see technology as an opportunity rather than a threat.

“We see change happening in the industry,” said Jason Berman, chief commercial officer at London-based port services provider, S5 Agency World. “More people with tech experience are entering the industry, whether they are in the middle of their careers or just starting out, and they will drive the transition into more and more areas.

“Technology development is also helping, and implementation costs are coming down. The software as a service solution we offer requires no hardware investment by our clients. But this has only recently become a

Top: Asyad has begun using drones for aerial surveillance of port infrastructure, including docks and ship-collision barriers. CREDIT: ASYAD GROUP

Dr Noura Al Dhaheri Maqta Gateway

viable solution for shipping because of developments in the wider tech industry in the past ten or fifteen years, such as cloud infrastructure and satellite technology.”

Digital technology in the form of hub solutions – centralized data platforms that team members can access anywhere in the world – is a particularly exciting development at ports and terminals, he said.

This type of technology eliminates operating silos across businesses and standardizes operational and financial processes, saving companies time and money.

The upheaval of Covid19, meanwhile, has forced the industry to think and act in a more decentralized way, with many digitalization and automation processes that had been slowly evolving over previous years being catalyzed by the pandemic.

According to Berman, while the deployment of digital solutions in the Middle East and Africa, or MEA, region has sometimes lagged behind other parts of the world – Europe and North America in particular – it is now moving in the right direction.

“We see colleagues who have previously been working around the world returning to markets in the Persian Gulf and India and creating new businesses to deliver the kinds of process efficiencies in our industry that they have experienced while working elsewhere,” Berman said.

DRONES SUCCESS IN OMAN

At Sohar Port and Freezone in Oman the use of underwater drones and artificial intelligence to inspect marine infrastructure and analyze data is enhancing productivity and streamlining operations.

The complex, managed by Sohar Industrial Port Company, a joint venture between state-controlled logistics group Asyad and the Port of Rotterdam, has been using the technology as part of its essential monitoring system for more than two years.

The drones are employed to

provide realtime surveillance of all Sohar’s underwater assets, often accessing areas to detect cracks and corrosion in infrastructure deemed dangerous or beyond the reach of manned submersibles, such as jetties, bridges and the underside of vessels.

Images captured by the drones are then analyzed by Sohar’s operations team using artificial intelligence algorithms, a method that can be deployed to predict future damage to infrastructure and likely equipment needs.

“Our drones have proven efficient and capable of reaching areas humans cannot, while also offering a new perspective of the entire complex,”

Ghaith Al Darmaki, chief technology officer at Asyad Group, told Breakbulk.

“The technology even allows for algorithm-based analysis of changes to the infrastructure, which leads to greater preventative maintenance and problem-solving to be carried out at the complex.”

Sohar, the sultanate’s largest deep-sea port and industrial complex, which last year handled nearly 1.3 million tonnes of breakbulk cargo, has also begun using drones for aerial surveillance of port infrastructure such as docks and ship-collision barriers, cargo deliveries to rural areas and stock-counting and scanning in warehouses.

In recent warehouse trials managed by Asyad’s tech team, an inventory drone equipped with a long-range laser scanner, HD camera and onboard software took just 2.6 seconds to scan a pallet and generate a report that was shared wirelessly with a base station.

Ghaith Al Darmaki Asyad Group

Sohar Port uses underwater drones to inspect marine infrastructure.

CREDIT: ASYAD GROUP

The drone conducted its scans with over 99.7 percent accuracy and could operate continuously for up to 30 minutes between battery changes. “Drones and AI show the impact that cutting-edge technology can have on our industry to drive efficiency,” Darmaki said.

MACHINE LEARNING POSSIBILITIES

Dennis Dreier, IT director and senior consultant in IT strategy and digitalization at Hamburg Port Consulting, or HPC, said machine learning – a subset of artificial intelligence that enables computer systems to “learn” from experience – has huge potential to transform the industry.

“Nowadays, machine learning is mainly used to solve rather small problems in a well-defined scope. With increasing digitalization and data generation, we could imagine a vision where IT solutions are fully interconnected in a port,” he said.

“The port then becomes a smart eco-system of IT systems that follow a common data standard. From there, new opportunities will arise such as developing digital twins that are used to test strategic plans in real-time and draw conclusions for data-driven decisions shaping the future.”

Elsewhere in the region, the Port of Kribi in Cameroon, West Africa,

has designed and implemented its own community hub, dubbed the Port Information System, or PIS, set up for an integrated and computerized management of all operations at Kribi.

The system, launched in 2020, is deployed to manage ship calls at the port, process information at the harbor master’s office and monitor cargo movements, port security, performance indicators and billing data.

“The PIS has greatly influenced the operations of the port of Kribi (resulting in) improved efficiency, accountability, facilitation of data exchange, reduction of delays in the clearance of goods, integration and compliance with international standards,” said Michael Wilfried, director at the Port Authority of Kribi.

Kribi is also working on a Geographic Information System, or GIS, which will collect, store, analyze and visualize geographic data at the port, a tracking app that will allow users to keep tabs on cargo movements and the introduction of digital payments.

CHALLENGES FOR OPERATORS

The transition to digital, though, can be fraught with difficulties.

Wilfried pointed to internal challenges such as ensuring all staff have sufficient technical knowledge of a port’s digital solutions, and external challenges such as poor internet

services, power outages that cripple operations and cyber threats.

According to Wilfried, African port authorities are in a battle to continually assess, identify and manage risks to mitigate and prepare for potential cyber-attacks.

“The risk of intrusion is a threat that most African ports are not prepared for,” he said.

HPC’s Dreier said winning buy-in from stakeholders was key to successful implementation.

“I am particularly curious about blockchain technology, as it can be a base for secure and transparent operations.

“While this technology has become mature for being applied, change management is also required to gain acceptance by stakeholders and potential users. This is actually a good example that technology by itself does not make change. The changes happen by adapting the way of working and the mindset behind it.” BB

Dennis Dreier will be moderating the panel session “End-to-End Logistics: Artificial and Business Intelligence Driving Efficiency in Ports,” taking place on Tuesday Feb. 14 at Breakbulk Middle East.

Simon West is senior reporter at Breakbulk.

CREDIT: ASYAD GROUP

BREAKBULK MIDDLE EAST 2023 PORTS & TERMINALS

EVERYTHING PORTS AT BREAKBULK MIDDLE EAST 2023

Meet the exhibitors who support the critical Ports & Terminals sector, essential partners for most project cargo shipments. Look for detailed descriptions at https://www.middleeast.breakbulk.com/Exhibitor-list and connect with these valuable resources.

BY THOMAS TIMLEN

SERVICING INDIA’S OIL BONANZA

Crude Projects Set to Surge

India is set to account for nearly half of upcoming crude oil refinery projects in Asia through to 2026 and project cargo movers are readying themselves for the boom. In what could be seen as a counterintuitive projection against the backdrop of global efforts to reduce carbon emissions, some analysts see a significant level of growth for the refinery sector in India on the horizon.

A report issued by GlobalData, a data and analytics company, has India set to dominate Asian newbuild and expansion refinery projects between 2022 to 2026, as the country is expected to account for 47 percent of the upcoming crude oil refinery projects in the region, driven by economic growth and rising consumption of oil.

The report, ‘Crude Oil Refinery New-Build and Expansion Projects Analytics and Forecast by Project Type, Regions, Countries, Development Stage, and Cost 2022-2026’, reveals that 86 projects are expected to commence operations in India

Region: Asia

Problem: Slower start to India’s renewable transition means less decarbonization work for project movers

Solution: Proliferation of oil refinery projects to meet a proposed 40 percent growth in oil demand through to 2030 set to fill the gap

during the period. Out of these, two projects will be newbuild while 84 represent expansions of existing projects.

In India, 45 upcoming refinery projects are in the approval stage and will likely start operations between 2022 and 2026. Construction and feasibility are the other major project stages with 21 and 19 projects, respectively.

Illustrating the potential for growth in the sector, Sudarshini Ennelli, an oil and gas analyst at

GlobalData, said: “India has emerged as one of the world’s largest consumers of both petrochemicals and petroleum products, and therefore continues to expand its refining capacity to meet this evergrowing demand.” As the sector is positioned for expansion, it follows that demand for related project cargo transportation services will see a sustained or enhanced level of demand.

Trans Global Projects Group’s Chairman Colin Charnock has a similar outlook to Ennelli’s, stretching beyond 2026. “India is set to dominate the Asian newbuild and expansion refinery projects in the coming years,” he told Breakbulk . “We anticipate this expansion will continue beyond the scope of 2026.”

Colin Charnock TGP

TOP: ExxonMobil and India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation have agreed to collaborate on deepwater exploration off the east and west coasts of India. CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK

EXPANSION PROJECTS PLOUGH AHEAD

GlobalData’s report identifies the two major expansion projects that are expected to start operations by 2024 as the Vadinar CDU Expansion and the Panipat CDU Expansion . The Vadinar CDU Expansion has a capacity of 515,000 barrels per day, or bpd. Nayara Energy Ltd is the operator while Rosneft Oil Co and Trafigura Group Pte hold 49.1 percent and 24.1 percent of equity, respectively.

The Panipat CDU expansion project stands second with a refinery capacity of 200,000 bpd. Indian Oil Corp Ltd is the operator as well as 100 percent equity holder of this project, which is expected to start operations in 2024.

GlobalData’s Oil & Gas team’s Project Manager Pradeep Shukla told Breakbulk that India has emerged as one of the world’s fastest growing major economies, consistently recording a high economic growth rate over the past few years, and is expected to be among the top three economies globally in the next 10 to 15 years. “As the country’s economic growth is closely tied to its energy demand, oil demand in the country is expected to rise until 2040.

According to the World Energy Outlook 2022 , the country’s oil demand is projected to grow by more than 40 percent in 2030 compared with 2021 levels and is unlikely to peak before 2040,” Shukla said.

“While the Indian government has been investing in various alternate and clean energy projects, factors such as economic growth, rapid industrialization and urbanization will continue to drive petrochemical and petroleum products demand in the country over the next two decades. However, in the longer run, India’s net zero emission

target 2070 could have a significant impact on the development of oil and gas projects in the country as India moves towards a low-carbon economy.”

Subsequent to the report’s publication, other projects have been added to the expansion initiatives. “Apart from the expansion projects at Vadinar and Panipat refineries,” Shukla said, “another key project is the Visakhapatnam refinery expansion project.

“The Visakhapatnam refinery, owned and operated by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited, is undergoing an expansion cum modernization project to increase its processing capacity from 166,000 bpd to 300,000 bpd by 2023. The Visakh refinery modernization project would boost the overall processing capacity, improve the refinery’s conversion efficiency and produce Bharat stage emission standards VI compliant fuels.”

PHASED TRANSITION TO CLEANER FUELS

J M Baxi Heavy’s President and Chief of Business Sameer Parikh told Breakbulk that it is clear that India is committed to achieving net zero emissions in the future and is prioritizing a phased transition to cleaner fuels. “However,” he clarified, “given India’s energy needs to sustain its robust growth trajectory, there will be a gradual and steady transition away from nonrenewable energy before it picks up fully.”

Parikh pointed out that India’s oil consumption is forecast to rise from 5.2 million bpd in 2022 to 7.0 million bpd in 2030. Indian state refiners are set to invest 2 trillion rupees (US$26.96 billion) to boost oil refining capacity by 20 percent in Asia’s

third-largest economy by 2025. India’s refining capacity of about 251 million tonnes a year in 2022 is expected to climb to 298 million tonnes a year by 2025.

As such, “demand for gasoil will rise by an average 5.3 percent per year through the 2025 fiscal year and by an average 4.5 percent through 2030. India would continue to rely mainly on road transport to move cargo around the country, while the number of passenger cars would steadily increase in the coming years with rising vehicle ownership,” Parikh said.

While Indian oil demand will primarily stem from transportation fuels, it is the petrochemical sector that will dominate growth over the medium term. “Total ethane, LPG and naphtha demand is expected to grow,” Parikh said. “India is likely to start the operations of 281 petrochemicals projects by 2025, accounting for nearly 34 percent of the total upcoming petrochemicals project starts in Asia by 2025. India is one of the largest consumers of petrochemicals globally. It is one of the fastest growing industries in the Indian economy as it supports other growing industries such as construction, pharmaceuticals, and so on.

“While the share of renewables, including solar, wind and natural gas, is likely to increase in the next 10 years, absolute oil demand would still rise strongly over the next decade.”

Furthermore, Parikh pointed out that as nuclear and solar energy options are being studied, project logistics companies will need to keep a close watch on the developments taking place, saying that there will be a need to pivot and respond to changes with agility.

PROJECT CARGO BOOM

In Parikh’s view, all of this bodes well for the project cargo transport and heavy-lift sectors. “India has emerged as one of the world’s largest consumers of both petrochemicals and petroleum products, and therefore continues to expand its refining capacity to meet this ever-growing demand. With that, we expect there will be a demand for specialized project and heavy logistics transportation.”

Pradeep Shukla GlobalData Sameer Parikh J M Baxi Heavy

ENERGY UPDATE

Given the ‘Make in India’ thrust, he expects large production to be from within India. “J M Baxi Heavy is and will increase capacities to match demand, with the objective of increasing efficiency and maintaining on-time deliveries. We are focused on effective asset utilization and knowing the geographic hotspots we need to concentrate on. Movement of equipment is our core expertise whether it is greenfield, expansion or refurbishment of refineries. While India is a priority for us, we are also looking to countries like Europe, Korea and China which have most of the refineries and have license-based equipment.”

Trans Global Projects Group’s Charnok expresses a similar degree of optimism for providers of project cargo transportation and heavy-lift services. Asked if the sector has adequate capacity to meet the anticipated demand in India, Charnok replied with an emphatic, ‘yes,’ singling out components as presenting the biggest opportunity for the project cargo sector. “We anticipate equipment and components will be sourced from

Korea and China on the basis of low cost and relatively low freight rates compared to ex-U.S. or ex-Europe.”

Meanwhile, offshore energy activity should not be overlooked. This is because the upcoming capacity expansion is not limited to activity on land, but also extends to offshore initiatives. One example is a collaboration cemented between ExxonMobil and India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, or ONGC, aimed at deepwater exploration off the east and west coasts of India. The collaboration areas focus on the Krishna Godavari and Cauvery Basins in the eastern offshore and the Kutch-Mumbai region in the western offshore.

During an agreement signing ceremony, India’s Petroleum Secretary Shri Pankaj Jain said: “Partnerships between a national oil company like ONGC and an international oil company like ExxonMobil will bring tangible benefits in the entire energy value chain and open new vistas to [the] exploration and production paradigm. This collaboration will boost our confidence in going further ahead

in deepwater exploration in the east coast of India where the potential is quite significant.”

“We are building strong alliances with leading Indian firms to position India for a new era of economic growth, improved living standards and reduced emissions. This is the time to bring together the best of Indian and international industry to put natural gas to work for India,” added Bill Davis, CEO of ExxonMobil Gas (India) Private Limited.

With demand pushing expansion of refining capacity and project approvals being processed at a steady pace, there certainly are reasonable grounds to assume that there will be steady demand for project cargo transportation and heavy-lift services in India well beyond 2026. BB

Thomas Timlen is a Singaporebased analyst, researcher, writer and spokesperson with over 30 years of experience addressing the regulatory and operational issues that impact all sectors of the maritime industry.

J M Baxi Heavy moved two heavy-lift columns using 16-axle and 12-axle lines for a refinery expansion project. CREDIT: J M BAXI HEAVY

HYDROPOWER: AFRICA’S BIG GAMECHANGER

Projects of All Sizes in the Works

BY LIESL VENTER

Over 640 million Africans have no access to energy. The African Development Bank estimates that per capita consumption of energy in sub-Saharan Africa (excluding South Africa) is 180 kWh, compared to 13,000 kWh per capita in the U.S. and 6,500 kWh in Europe.

Bringing universal access to affordable electricity by 2030 on the continent would require installing connections to 90 million people a year, triple the rate of recent years, notwithstanding that energy demand in industry, freight and agriculture are growing rapidly. As is the population. It is one of the world’s fastest-growing

Region: Africa

Problem: Africa’s growing power needs held back by a lack of infrastructure

Solution: Large and small hydropower projects key to electrifying the continent

populations – one in three people born are African.

According to the International Energy Agency, or IEA, to achieve its energy and climate goals, Africa needs at least US$190 billion of investment a year between 2026 to 2030. Twothirds of this must go to clean energy.

The picture looks overwhelming. Especially if one considers the unfolding crisis in South Africa, home to the continent’s most developed electricity network. There, rolling blackouts have become a norm. To solve the problem of its flailing network, the country’s power utility has opted for a model of power-sharing, implementing rotational power outages several times per day for up to four hours per session. The reality in South Africa –and Africa – is simply this: there is not enough electricity.

IEA executive director Fatih Birol, however, maintains that amid the tumult of today’s continental energy crisis there is opportunity. Breaking down the enormous figures involved he uses a stark example: access to

energy for all Africans calls for an investment of only US$25 billion per year – a sum equivalent to the cost of building just one liquefied natural gas terminal.

He notes that clean energy will be the key to electrifying Africa. “The continent has the potential to leapfrog towards renewable energy. It holds one of the world’s best wind, solar and hydropower untapped resource potential.”

While the continent undoubtedly faces enormous challenges to build the infrastructure required to meet its needs, renewable solutions kill two birds with one stone – delivering much-needed energy and addressing climate change and environmental goals.

Trevor Criswell, IEA renewable energy market analyst, believes the hydrogen sector, in particular, holds big potential for Africa. “Given the weak grid infrastructure in many countries in Africa and the urgent need to expand large-scale power capacity, hydropower can meet multiple needs of the continent. First, hydropower offers an affordable solution to providing electricity access to those who don’t have it. Depending on the country, hydropower can provide comparable, if not lower, cost of electricity compared to fossil fuels,” he said. “Second, large hydropower dams can provide additional benefits beyond electricity in Africa such as agricultural irrigation, drinking water supply, transport and navigation, flood control and strategic water storage. Third, hydropower has other services such as power system flexibility and – it can ramp up and down quickly and start quickly. This helps prevent load-shedding, black-outs, and helps maintain a reliable system which is needed for industries to grow.”

THE ARGUMENT FOR HYDROPOWER

International Hydropower Association (IHA) Vice President Anton-Louis Olivier told Breakbulk what makes hydropower even more viable is that it is already well-established on the continent. “In Sub-Saharan Africa, excluding South Africa, there is already around 50 to 60 GW of installed capacity of which more than half of that is hydropower.”

Statistically, Africa shares a similar picture to the rest of the world: hydropower accounts for around 17 percent of power generation. By the end of 2021, there was a total of 38 GW of installed capacity in Africa but this figure has increased thanks to several projects having been commissioned in recent months, most notably Ethiopia’s Grand Renaissance project that began electricity production in February this year, commissioning two units with an installed capacity of 375 MW each. Once completed, it will be Africa’s largest hydropower plant at 5.3 GW.

Also, in Nigeria, the first 175 MW were commissioned at the 700 MW Zungeru Hydropower Station.

IHA Head of Research, Alex Campbell, said the good news, however, lies in the huge untapped capacity. “It is the continent with the least exploited resource with only around 10 percent of the economically and environmentally viable capacity being used at the moment. The two main rivers, the Congo flowing through the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and the Nile through Ethiopia, hold great potential for the development of hydroelectric power.”

Dan Klinck, CEO of East African Power, an integrated renewable energy development and engineering company, estimates that hydropower will account for at least 30 percent to 35 percent of new generation installations on the continent for the next twenty to thirty years. “Hydropower might not see the same headline coverage as solar and wind in Africa, but it is an extremely popular solution for many governments. There are multiple projects taking place across Africa as we speak, and the pipeline is even longer.”

What makes it even more beneficial is that the projects are spread across the spectrum from very large to tiny delivering only one-digit MW. “The opportunity is massive because we are not talking about ten or 20 or even 50 large hydro plants that need developers, investors and project experts but thousands of small hydropower projects that are as attractive to the market.”

More so, new hydropower would not only bring clean, reliable renewable energy, but it would also stabilize the grid in many regions, in turn facilitating the building of new solar and wind projects.

“From a logistics point of view, the continent is well-placed to deliver on hydropower projects – those currently under construction and the massive pipeline. Logistics companies have built up the knowledge and expertise to move this type of cargo efficiently.”

Rubagabaga hydropower plant located in Nyabihu in the western part of Rwanda.

CREDIT: EAST AFRICAN POWER

PLENTY OF PROJECT CHOICE

Hydropower, Klink said, is all round good news for the project sector at large. Renewable energy expert Wim Jonker Klunne agreed that there is much to be excited about when it comes to hydropower projects as they hold potential for the entire supply chain – big and small players alike.

“Looking at small-scale projects alone there is a lot of activity taking place. In South Africa, a country that is considered dry, there are at least five hydro plants between the Lesotho Highlands and the Vaal Dam requiring project cargo and heavy-lift capability for the transformers that have to be moved. There is work for logistics operators in the hydropower sector across the continent.”

More so, the projects are situated all over Africa meaning the pie is not only large but can be shared. A U.S.

Aid spokesperson told Breakbulk that 1,582 MW of Power Africa’s hydropower projects had reached financial closure by March this year and were ready to move ahead. This included Singrobo-Ahouaty in Cote d’Ivoire, the Mein River Hydro Pilot in Liberia, the Kainji Power-Jebba Hydro Power station in Nigeria, the Nachtigal Amont Hydroelectric Project in Cameroon, Giciye III in Rwanda, Nyamagazani I, Siti II and SM Hydro Limited in Uganda as well as the Luponde and Rusumo Hydropower projects in Tanzania.

Plants that had been commissioned more recently were the KruisvalleI Hydro in South Africa, Nkula A Rehabilitation in Malawi, Achwa 2 HPP, Kyambura, Ndugutu SHP and Nkusi in Uganda. Also, the Lubilia Power Project, Mavumbe and Rwime and Waki project were commissioned. In Liberia, the Mount

AFRICAN PROJECTS ‘NOT FOR FAINT-HEARTED’

Capital costs are a huge barrier to starting new hydropower projects in Africa, especially those that are large and owned by the State, according to a U.S. Aid spokesperson. “Many of these projects are dependent on weak sovereign borrowing rates making the cost of capital high. There are well-founded concerns as well around environmental and social issues caused by new hydropower that must be addressed with robust environmental and social impact awareness assessments and feasibility studied.”

For Philip Warren, managing director of Africa Route Clearance Consultants, the reliance on road networks remains one of the biggest challenges to overcome in Africa. “Although we are seeing investment into road infrastructure increase and efforts are being made to maintain the main arterial routes, the secondary network, especially for project cargo, can be a nightmare.”

Warren said cargo in the energy sector is extremely sensitive and requires as smooth transport as possible. “Road rehabilitation is ongoing, but the networks are old, particularly the bridges. That is where the biggest

challenges lie especially for heavy and sensitive cargo like transformers. Nearly all of the bridges have to have bypasses and on a single route that can be one or five. It becomes an astronomically expensive exercise.”

He said in many instances where a bridge does not have to be bypassed it still requires propping. “The infrastructure has severe weight and height limitations. Fatal flaws exist and circumventing it can be done, but it comes with a price tag.” Transport and handling equipment is also not always readily available and congested ports with not enough storage facility add to the woes.

The upside, DSV’s senior manager of projects, air and sea, Peter Verheyke said, is that logisticians and transporters in the project sector have become professional at finding out-of-the-ordinary solutions. Warren added: “Often experts from elsewhere in the world will have nearheart failure when they see how we deal with some of the challenges. The African project logistics sector is not for the faint-hearted. It requires real resilience.”

Coffee Hydropower Plant project is up and running as is Itezhi Tezhi in Zambia.

IHA’s Olivier said another reason for celebration was the numerous projects already being planned. In Burundi, the government approved a project to build two hydroelectric power stations on the Mulembwe and Ruvyironza rivers that will inject 10.65 MW into the local electricity grid. “Malawi just signed an agreement for the Mpatamanga hydropower plant on the Shire River. This 350-MW facility will be the first of its kind in the country doubling the installed capacity of hydropower in Malawi,” he said.

NOTHING SPECIALISTS CAN’T HANDLE

According to Peter Verheyke, senior manager of projects, air and sea at DSV, hydropower logistics are not a problem with logisticians able to easily handle hydropower projects just about anywhere on the continent. “There is very little that cannot be moved despite the many challenges and obstacles that exist. The hydropower sector is also logistically far less challenging than wind for instance and so there is a lot of interest from companies to service these projects.”

He said that while project logistics by their very nature in Africa are not easy, logistics companies have over the years developed the skills to ensure projects are delivered within deadlines. He said technical assessments are necessary as this allows risks to be identified early on in the process.

“Moving 300-ton pieces of equipment over treacherous terrain in very rural areas far from ports is never easy,” Klink said. “Hydropower, while easier cargo than some others, still involves numerous pieces of electromechanical equipment that is sensitive and needs to be treated carefully. Considering the locations of these projects in Africa, logistics is an important element for success.”

When it comes to greenfield projects, the available infrastructure to deliver cargo to a site is always a critical element to consider whether it be the need to bring in heavy handling equipment, propping a bridge, or building a jetty or even a road.

Experts Breakbulk spoke to agreed that the range of projects currently underway, and in the pipeline, is a major boon for the sector’s service providers. PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) energy expert Martin Solomon said: “For large-scale projects timelines are long and the process can take decades to get off the ground. There needs to be an alignment between the public and private sectors while the investment needs to make sense to financiers. Getting the political and commercial sides on the same page can be difficult. The smaller projects, however, require only a modest amount of capital, are extremely scalable and many governments are happy to see private stakeholders and independent power producers take the lead.”

In East Africa, major inroads have been made, Klinck said. Ghana, Kenya and Rwanda are on track to meet their 2030 energy goals and other countries on the continent are working hard to catch up. Efforts to deliver capacity are being scaled up.

“There is potential in Mozambique for another 1,500 MW and in Tanzania, a similar size project is underway. In the Democratic Republic of Congo they are moving forward with a project on the Congo River, while Zimbabwe has more than ten projects in the pipeline that are a good medium to large scale,” he said.

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE ROUTE

In the end, successful projects in Africa start and end with route feasibility. Said Warren: “The biggest problems oftentimes only rear their head over the last few kilometers getting to a site that could involve constructing a road from scratch or finding alternative truck/trailer combinations. Considering the sensitivity of a transformer it is important, for example, to avoid a situation where the front of the truck goes over a crest and the back is not there yet, resulting in the cargo touching the ground or the truck getting jammed in tight dips.”

According to IHA’s Campbell, this is where small-scale hydro projects are proving their worth as they can be scaled and adjusted to meet the local environment and geographical limitations. “When it comes to hydropower it is very much sitespecific. It requires a lot of civil work upfront, but it does not have the particularly difficult demand of wind or is delicate.”

Moving forward, he said, it is critical to increase timelines for getting consenting and planning right. “At present, it can take up to ten years to complete these processes alone and that is too long. We have built enough hydropower projects in Africa to know we can overcome the challenges that exist from a logistics and project perspective. We have to improve regulatory frameworks to speed up delivery.” BB

Liesl Venter is a transportation journalist based in South Africa.

A Kaplan turbine. CREDIT: VOITH

EARLY MOVERS HARNESS HYDROGEN PROMISE

Nascent Industry Could be Next Offshore Wind BY CARLY FIELDS

Dubbed the ‘Decade of Hydrogen’, excitement is building around the infrastructure needed for a planned proliferation of hydrogen facilities around the world through to 2030. The current hydrogen project pipeline exceeds 360 gigawatts, 1,200 times the electrolyzer capacity in 2020. The numbers alone speak volumes but to amplify the vast potential, Dr Madana Leela Nallappan, regional analyst (APAC) and hydrogen specialist at the Energy Industries Council, makes the promise clear. “I like to think of hydrogen as the next offshore wind,” she said, speaking to Breakbulk. While the offshore wind sector has moved from nascent to blooming, smart project minds are already laying the groundwork for the hydrogen boom.

“At the moment, we have US$400 billion worth of projects and more than 400 projects in the hydrogen pipeline,” Nallappan said. Most of those are expected to come online beyond 2025; before then just 30GW of projects are expected. “Most projects are still in the feasibility stage. Very few have entered pre-FEED or FEED stages, and even fewer the EPC stage.”

This nascency is an opportunity for project cargo manufacturers, movers and handlers, according to Nallappan. “Yes, the hydrogen market is still nascent, but what I tell people is that it takes a long lead time to come up with new offerings, and to modify products. So that’s why you have got to start

Region: Global

Problem: Hydrogen infrastructure development not yet meeting the hype

Solution: A vast project pipeline could offer promise for early movers

identifying the opportunities now and to determine where in the hydrogen value chain your products or offerings fit.

“Now is the time to start doing the groundwork – that’s what I usually tell supply chain companies.”

WIDE GEOGRAPHICAL SPREAD

For where to focus that groundwork, Nallappan highlighted the U.S. as being a step ahead of other countries. The U.S. already has hydrogen infrastructure and is thought to have the most hydrogen pipelines laid. Added to which, the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act signed into law on Aug. 16, 2022, directs new federal spending toward reducing carbon emissions and aims to catalyze investments in domestic manufacturing capacity, encourage procurement of critical supplies domestically or from free-trade partners, and jump-start R&D and commercialization of leading-edge technologies such as carbon capture and storage and, crucially, clean hydrogen. The Act is viewed as a driver for hydrogen in the U.S.

For China, Nallappan conceded that visibility on projects is low, however she suspects that they are one of the top hydrogen developers. In the Middle East, eyes are on Oman, which was expected to release its hydrogen strategy in December 2022. There is also interest in hydrogen in Africa. Australia boasts many gigawatt-scale projects. Here, renewable energy developer CWP is working on the US$70 billion Western Green Energy Hub project, one of the biggest being looked at in the region. In South Korea, the emphasis is on liquefaction

Hydrogen developments in Rotterdam. CREDIT: PORT OF ROTTERDAM

CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK

projects, while Japanese companies such as Mitsubishi and Itochu are working on international rather than domestic projects.

Europe has put its backing firmly behind hydrogen too. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently described hydrogen as a “game changer” for Europe. “It is key in diversifying our energy sources and helping us reduce our dependency on Russian gas. We need to bring this niche market to scale.”

Speaking to Breakbulk, an EC spokesperson confirmed in December that the Commission is “actively cooperating” with all interested Member States towards possible upcoming Important Projects of Common European Interest in hydrogen and had received the first information on individual projects from Member States. The EC’s REPowerEU Plan, announced in May 2022, goes heavy on its support of hydrogen, launching a hydrogen accelerator to “unlock investment in renewable hydrogen use in industry,” with the ambition of using 20 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen in the European Union in 2030.

ROTTERDAM’S HYDROGEN HUB AMBITIONS

Port of Rotterdam has a stated aim to become the international hub for hydrogen, where import, production, use, trade and transit all come together. By 2050, it plans for some 20 million tons of hydrogen to be routed through the port. The Port Authority is working with various partners towards the introduction of a large-scale hydrogen network across the port complex. Randolf Weterings, programme manager for electrification and hydrogen at the Port of Rotterdam Authority, said to Breakbulk: “In Rotterdam we already have a significant hydrogen market and infrastructure. We will use that knowledge and asset base to scale it further up to 20 million tons eventually by 2050.”

Rotterdam sees an important

role for itself in fulfilling the EC’s REPowerEU plan. It projects that it will be able to provide Northwest Europe with at least 4.6 million tonnes of hydrogen in 2030 – close to a quarter of the EU target. Weterings noted that to achieve this, policy wrinkles need to be addressed. These include the enabling of a legislative framework that attracts investors and provides certainty to both European and nonEuropean actors; a robust certification system for hydrogen imports that will be operational by 2023 at the latest; market development focused on both development of new private pipelines and infrastructure in addition to reuse of existing pipelines; and stimulating ‘first-mover’ projects to speed up the construction of the necessary infrastructure for hydrogen imports.

The Port also acknowledged that the entire value chain needs to be developed to support the expansion of hydrogen. “This starts with the expansion of renewable energies and extends to the development of production facilities, including CCS for blue hydrogen, and the backbone and pipeline infrastructure to transport the hydrogen further. It is also important

Randolf Weterings

“In Rotterdam we already have a significant hydrogen market and infrastructure. We will use that knowledge and asset base to scale it further up to 20 million tons eventually by 2050.”

– Randolf Weterings, Port of Rotterdam

INFRASTRUCTURE

Saudi Arabia’s giga project NEOM plans to produce 650 tonnes per day of green hydrogen in 2026. CREDIT: NEOM

MIDDLE EAST’S HYDROGEN AMBITIONS

The Gulf Cooperation Council countries are styling themselves as pioneers in the hydrogen economy and announcements on projects are coming thick and fast from the region.

Oman – already a trailblazer in the hydrogen arena – ramped up its hydrogen ambitions with the launch of the company Hydrom late in 2022 to structure and accelerate the development of the green hydrogen sector in Oman.

Fully owned by Energy Development Oman and regulated by the country’s Ministry of Energy and Minerals, Hydrom is a central and independent entity orchestrating national interest in green hydrogen. Its main mandate is to masterplan the sector, delineating government owned land areas, structuring associated large-scale green hydrogen projects, managing the process for their allocation to developers and overseeing their execution as well as facilitating the development of common infrastructure, connected ecosystem industries and hubs.

Hydrom intends to award land blocks for green hydrogen projects in 2023 in two bidding rounds. Round 1 will see two blocks awarded in Duqm area by the end

of the first quarter of 2023, while Round 2 will see an additional two to four blocks awarded in the Dhofar area by the end of the fourth quarter of 2023.

Oman’s over-arching aim is to produce 1.25 million tonnes of green hydrogen per year by 2030. Green hydrogen is also proving attractive to Saudi Arabia’s NEOM, a smart city being built in Tabuk Province. Coming onstream in 2025, NEOM’s green hydrogen plant is expected to be the first of several similar plants to make a hub there for green hydrogen production and innovation.

The green hydrogen will be exported and used in NEOM for a variety of solutions – including fueling clean autonomous electric vehicles.

Peter Terium, CEO of Enowa, NEOM’s Energy & Water company, commented: “NEOM is one of only six places on earth that has a perfect location when it comes to generating solar and wind energy. When combined with the desalinated water we produce, NEOM will be able to produce 650 tons of virgin green hydrogen per day. It will be home to the world’s largest green hydrogen plant.”

to create the conditions for the use of hydrogen in industry,” said the Port.

“We see that parts of the value chain are manufactured all over the globe and will come as sub-systems to the factories. Think about electrolyzer stacks, transformers, compressors, and so on, which are really big pieces of equipment. Therefore, we definitely need sufficient logistics, which fits well with the developments in the breakbulk sector in the Port of Rotterdam,” Weterings said.

What is needed to support future hydrogen development? He said: “The task is so big that it is a matter of scaling up. This development has just begun and is not yet finished. However, you do see that, for example, in the industry and mobility/fuel sector, using more hydrogen also requires new investments. Those investments are also coming.”

ALLIANCES FORMING FAST

Elsewhere in Europe, a new federal hydrogen council is to be established in Belgium with the Port of AntwerpBruges’ key to the country’s strategy and projects for the importation, production and throughput of green hydrogen. Jacques Vandermeiren, CEO Port of Antwerp-Bruges, said: “Together with our partners in organizations such as the Hydrogen Import Coalition, and the major players on our port platform, we are investing in infrastructure and projects to accelerate the import, transport and production of green hydrogen.”

In the UK, national port operator Associated British Ports has partnered with Air Products to bring the first large scale, green hydrogen production facility to the UK. The facility would import green ammonia from production locations operated by Air Products and its partners around the world. This would be used to produce green hydrogen, which would decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors such as transport and industry.

However, despite the mounting excitement, Nallappan does sound a note of caution. Demand for hydrogen is not yet there in the volumes that the market is anticipating. Current demand for hydrogen is 94 million tonnes per annum, according to the

Commission approves up to €5.2 billion support by 13 Member States for an Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI) in the Hydrogen value chain “IPCEI Hy2Use”

International Energy Agency, and predicted to rise to 115 million tonnes by 2030, only 20 percent more. “With the current number of projects that we have in the pipeline, that’s not going to meet even the current demand yet, but if the run rate of projects continues, I think by 2026, we could already be looking at a project pipeline that exceeds that 115 million tonnes per annum demand in 2030, predicted by the IEA. That poses a little bit of a risk for investors,” she said.

Nallappan also has advice for project cargo movers looking to get a foothold in this sector. One, identify where the key markets are and whether they align with what you’re doing at the moment. Two, identify where you fit in the value chain and if you don’t fit, how can you modify your services and products and equipment to fit. Three, build partnerships upwards with the main project developers. She lists common names as InterContinental Energy, Mitsubishi, Iwatani, Itochu, ACME Group, and Linde. “Another aspect is to collaborate with contractors who already have their foot in the door,” she added. “Many oil and gas supply chain companies already have relationships with companies like this, so engage with them and start talking about the potential of going into hydrogen.” BB

Carly Fields has reported on the shipping industry for the past 22 years, covering bunkers and broking and much in between.

INFRASTRUCTURE

LARGE SCALE HYDROGEN PROJECTS

HyDeal Ambition (67GW), Europe, completion 2030: www.hydeal.com/hydeal-ambition

Reckaz (20GW), Kazakhstan, completion 2028: www.rec-kaz.net Aman (30GW), Mauritania: www.cwp.global

Australian Renewable Energy Hub (26GW), Australia, completion 2027-28

Green Energy Oman (14GW), Oman, completion 2038

NortH2 (10GW), completion 2040, North Sea, www.north2.eu AquaVentus (10GW), completion 2035, North Sea, www.aquaventus.org

DREWRY: MPV MARKET TO STAY RESILIENT

Maritime Consultancy Expects Heavy-lift Fleet Growth in 2023

BY DR FERENC PASZTOR

For the first time in some years, the total multipurpose vessel fleet recorded growth over the 12 months of 2022 and is likely to do so again this year. This is due to the extremely low demolition sales reported over 2022, which was one of the worst in terms of demolition candidates. This was fairly unsurprising given charter rates were reported at peak levels.

However, even with those rates, and the impending IMO regulations on emissions and carbon reductions, we had expected a few more vessels to head for the beaches.

As the charter market continues to decline over 2023, scrapyards empty and emission regulations become clearer, Drewry’s expectations for demolition candidates start to rise again to at least parity with 2019, even if most of these vessels are less than 10,000 deadweight-tonnes and not heavy-lift capable.

That said, the MPV and heavylift fleet has two distinct halves, as seen in Figure 1. Demolition candidates are expected to rise much more quickly for the non-heavy-lift capable fleet, whereas the majority of newbuilding orders are for larger heavy-lift vessels. This leads to fleet

growth of 1.2 percent for 2023 compared with 2022. The non-heavy-lift fleet, however, effectively stagnates, while heavy-lift capable vessels are expected to see a rise of 2.5 percent in deadweight terms.

Even with this positive outlook for fleet growth as 2022 drew to a close, the outlook for the multipurpose and heavy-lift fleet was significantly less positive than it had been at the same time in 2021. At that point the first reports of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 were in the news but the global economy was on a positive growth trajectory and our outlook was cautiously optimistic.

FAST FORWARD

What a difference a year makes. The conflict in Ukraine coupled with continued (or recurrent) Covid-19 infections, particularly in China, increasing inflationary pressures and a rising debt burden in many developing countries have produced a much more subdued outlook for the maritime sector.

Last year started with charter rates in all three main dry cargo sectors at unprecedently high levels, peaking over the first quarter of 2022. At that point container rates were 900 percent higher than the second quarter of 2020 (the lowest point in the market over recent years), bulk carrier rates were 200 percent higher and MPV rates were almost 150 percent up. But from that point there was only one way for them to go.

From the peak at the beginning of the year charter rates in the container sector had lost almost 80 percent of their value by the end of November 2022, while handy bulk carriers had lost 50 percent. The MPV sector, however, did better – at least for the heavy-lift-capable sector – with long-term charter rates down just 10 percent from the peak.

The reasons behind this are largely to do with the demand for these vessels and the particular mix of cargoes that they can lift. The MPV sector benefitted for much of the year from the spill over cargo that was a by-product of supply chain issues.

As those issues have been unwound, project cargoes – from both the renewables and oil and gas sectors – have underpinned the loss in demand. Going forward in 2023, Drewry expects rates to continue this deteriorating trend as the competition for breakbulk and project cargo increases in an ever-weakening global economy. BB

Dr Ferenc Pasztor is deputy head of research at Drewry Shipping Consultants. He has more than 12 years’ experience in academic research and shipping.

Multipurpose (no gear & geared) fleet (right axis)

Project carrier and heavy-lift fleet (right axis)

Multipurpose (no gear & geared) deliveries

Project carrier and heavy-lift deliveries

Project carrier and heavy-lift demolitions

Multipurpose (no gear & geared) demolitions

Drewry Maritime Research

Handysize (28,000dwt)

Multipurpose (18,000dwt)

*Indices are based on period charter rates for each sector

Source: Drewry Maritime Research

Figure 1: Fleet Development by Vessel Type

Figure 2: Comparison of MPV, Dry Bulk and Container Charter Rate Trends*

Source:

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BY THOMAS TIMLEN

LOSERS OF CHINA’S COVID CLAMPDOWN

Projects Suffer Spiraling Costs, Schedule Nightmares

With unprecedented disruption to China exports because of zero-Covid policies, there have been inevitable implications for global projects.

Within China, the initial outbreak of the coronavirus created internal barriers between regions that in some cases hindered the delivery of medical supplies desperately needed in places attempting to care for overwhelming numbers of infected patients. China’s zero-Covid policies, stricter than policies implemented in other parts of the world, created hardships across the nation

Regions: Asia

Problem: China’s lockdowns have caused project supply chain planning and scheduling chaos

Solution: Nearshoring and building up suppliers in different geographies help to offset pain

for domestic and international travel in the form of lengthy quarantine periods. Meanwhile, the impact on trade movements resulted with stakeholders scrambling to identify and

implement contingency plans aimed at fulfilling contracts and market demand, equally for the construction, manufacturing and transport sectors.

For cargo transport, China’s policies have not only burdened domestic movements but have also created challenges for global exports and imports of all freight types, creating situations in which many faced dire consequences while others reaped unanticipated benefits. Breakbulk spoke with two industry experts who shared their insights regarding how China’s approach has affected the global transport sector.

TOP: Discharge of a steam drum shipped from Shanghai, China, to Fray Bentos, Uruguay, for a pulp mill project. CREDIT: deugro

MANUFACTURING

“Clearly the China Covid restrictions, but also general China policies and the overall decline in the economy, have had an effect on the shipping industry,” Broekman Logistics’ Global Commercial Director Rutger Bonsel told Breakbulk. “At the container transport side, we saw massive declines in prices in late 2022. It is fair to say that the shipping carriers had been the ones profiting most, and forwarders consequently as well, and that with the current decline they are the ones that feel the biggest pain at the moment.

“With breakbulk, we experienced an increase in spot rates at terminals. There was a clear trend of moving goods which were normally containerized into breakbulk vessels. That trend is still going on.” Bonsel further underlined that there has not yet been a significant drop in breakbulk spot rates compared with what has been seen with container freight rates.

CONSEQUENCES FOR PROJECTS

Meanwhile, deugro’s President for Greater China and Pakistan, Dirk Wittkowski offered a granular analysis linking China’s domestic Covid policies to resultant consequences for project development and the transport sector. “China started to close its borders to foreigners in early 2020, shortly after the start of the pandemic. As a result, business travel both for Chinese going abroad, but also foreigners visiting China, was greatly impaired and remains so with the continuation of strict zero-Covid policies domestically coupled with 8 to 10 days mandatory centralized quarantine requirements for international arrivals. On the one hand,” Wittkowski continued, “these policies continue to have an adverse effect on new contract negotiations, on the other hand, they also result in increased challenges for required personnel able or even willing to travel to China.

“Also, the requirement for a more resilient supply chain became even more predominant with the March 2022 mass lockdown in Shanghai extending from an initial four days

to more than two months, followed by lockdowns all over China, literally paralyzing global supply chain predictability.”

Before long, the extent of the impact of China’s policies became clear. “The Shanghai lockdown showed the world the effects of a greatly disrupted supply chain, with people unable to move, factories being forced to close or not able to receive raw materials, terminals being congested, truck drivers unable to pick up or deliver cargo, and a sheer massive number of ships piling up at anchorage.”

The implications for global industrial projects were multifaceted. With a strong dependency on China, the need for a more resilient and diversified supply chain became imminent, Wittkowski said. However, China with its unparalleled production capacity and efficient domestic supply chain is not easily available nor replicated in other countries. “Overall, nearly three years of zero-Covid in China have been characterized by a significant increase in overall procurement costs, with transportation cost surges being a particular cost driver. In combination with a negative impact on long-term contracts entered into pre-Covid, severe delays caused by capacity constraints, both on the transportation side but also in manufacturing, as well as restrictions on people’s mobility, have contributed to significantly longer project and construction times.”

Wittkowski believes that despite recent refinements to China’s zero-

Covid policies, trade is still in the midst of having to accept a degree of predictable unpredictability for as long as China maintains its unique, or ‘dynamic’ zero-Covid approach.

OPPORTUNITY VERSUS DANGER

It has been said that the Chinese word for crisis means opportunity. It has also been said that the same word means danger. Linguistics aside, the pandemic and China’s response to it undoubtably provided opportunities for some while others struggled.

“The status quo was certainly shaken in its foundation as a result of the pandemic in general, but especially due to China’s zero-Covid approach,” Wittkowski said. “With a focus on logistics and China exports, I would certainly rate shipping companies, container manufacturers and warehouse operators as high-yield winners, looking at their balance sheets. But so, too, are online retailers, who benefited from consumer spending during lockdowns.”

Of course, new situations brought with them new, and often undesirable consequences that had to be overcome. “In the industrial project segment, higher procurement costs, construction delays, unpredictable transportation schedules, and lack of availability of qualified personnel being available for dispatch caused adverse implications to project clients,” Wittkowski said. “In particular, a surge in consumer demand in the post-lockdown period in most of the world resulted in overbooked container vessels, with surplus containers being absorbed by multipurpose and heavy-lift tonnage.” Overall, this reduced shipping capacity for the industrial cargo segment, which led to vessels being fully booked for months in advance, making it even more difficult to plan shipments.

Looking ahead, Wittkowski expected that new winners will arise as result of more diversified and resilient supply chains. Nearshoring momentum is one driver here, but so too is building up a multitude of suppliers in different geographies.

Dirk Wittkowski deugro

Rutger Bonsel Broekman Logistics

LOSERS SUFFER FROM POOR PLANNING

But there have also been losers. “Projects were budgeted, and contracts concluded for the sale of electrical equipment two years prior to the Covid mandates,” Wittkowski said. “Upon tendering the logistics part in the first half of 2022, the actual transport costs exceeded the considered shipping budget multiple times and caused a significant loss to the industry, not only on the shipping side, but also on the production and material procurement side.”

He explained that some industries secured project contracts some years back and then failed to secure the required and substantial shipping space in advance. At the time of project execution, these companies did not manage to secure sufficient shipping

capacity, and whatever space was available resulted in substantially higher costs than often were economically viable for the project. “Consequently, delays and heavy cost overruns impacted projects and, in some cases, projects even had to be cancelled.”

The list of stakeholders who have reaped benefits from China’s strict zero-Covid policies can be expanded further to include the lawyers who gained work not just from renegotiating contracts related to business that was impacted but also probing those very same contracts seeking potential means to find applicable provisions providing their clients with viable exit strategies. Similarly, China’s dominance in sectors such as chip manufacturing has resulted in initiatives to establish chip manufacturing plants in regions far from Asia, which in turn generate

employment opportunities for nearby communities.

As 2022 drew to a close, the Chinese government faced exceptional public protests against its zero-Covid policies, which saw a general easing of the measures. While it might be over-optimistic to expect a complete return to business as usual in China, many, if not most, of the adjustments that have been made throughout the global supply chain are not likely to be reversed anytime and now stand to represent a new normal. BB

Thomas Timlen is a Singaporebased analyst, researcher, writer and spokesperson with over 30 years of experience addressing the regulatory and operational issues that impact all sectors of the maritime industry.

Two evaporator effects with a width of approx 15 meters – shipped from China – on the road to a pulp mill project in Central Uruguay. CREDIT: deugro

BARRIERS TO BLACK SEA GAS

Bureaucracy Holding Back Projects BY

Natural gas from the Black Sea is the solution for Romania’s energy independence, according to the country’s Oil and Gas Employers’ Federation (FPPG). In an open letter published in November 2021, it noted that to avoid the impact of rising energy prices and to strengthen resilience to future shocks, “the solution for our country … is to adopt a stable and predictable long-term energy policy that stimulates investment and, consequently, domestic energy production.”

The letter insisted: “In a balanced, stable and competitive legislative and regulatory context, Romania would have been much better prepared, having new energy sources in production today. Such an example is represented by the Black Sea gas projects, which could have been launched years ago, under conditions of an offshore legislative framework suitable for investments of this magnitude. Unfortunately, despite the industry’s efforts to communicate the specifics and benefits of offshore natural gas projects, the legislation in force (adopted in 2018) blocked the investments planned by companies and, implicitly, the advancement of projects.”

Three months later, Russia invaded Ukraine and the barriers rose higher. As George Nita, general manager at Holleman, Romania, said: “It is a war zone now and some international companies have left from some of the areas they want to explore near

FELICITY LANDON

Regions: Europe, Asia

Problem: Policy and regulations are stalling the progression of Black Sea gas infrastructure projects

Solution: An offshore law is a step in the direction, and project cargo movers are calling for more government support

Constanza. The Government is trying to encourage companies to come and explore but probably they have been discouraged.”

Holleman routinely transports oil and gas related items within Romania and Eastern Europe – mostly items coming into the Port of Constanza for final transport to site by barge or vessel.

Naturally, Romanian heavy-lift and project forwarding specialists have been directly impacted by the war in neighboring Ukraine. Nita said: “We have been affected by the war quite a lot; we are trying to adapt to the situation and do other jobs, but when Russia came into Ukraine, we were doing [wind turbine] work for Vestas and had to leave. There was a loss of money with that; we had prepared and budgeted and signed contracts for the job but only did a quarter of it.”

In addition, five trucks and trailers were requisitioned by the Ukrainian army and Holleman is still awaiting

the promised payment for these, he said.

Emre Eldener, managing director of Istanbul-based Kita Logistics, said his company’s interest is in offshore gas exploration projects just off the coast of Turkey, which have not been too affected by the war so far.

LEGISLATION HOLDING BACK GROWTH

In October, Trillion Energy announced the preliminary gas indications from the first well drilled in its 2022-23 drilling campaign at the SASB gas field in the Black Sea off Turkey.

It has been estimated that Romania has 200 billion cubic meters of gas in its sector of the Black Sea. However, the FPPG emphasized in its letter the need for “clear provisions on fiscal and legislative stability, a balanced tax system and free market mechanisms,” warning that in the absence of Black Sea projects, Romania’s gas imports could increase to 50 percent by 2030. “Therefore, let us all try not to repeat the mistakes made in recent years. Companies are ready to launch multi-billion-euro projects to bring natural gas to shore for consumers.”

It added: “Natural gas in the Black Sea is the only solution for Romania to secure its access to energy and to successfully cross the period of energy transition. Moreover, Black Sea projects can support the relaunch of some industrial

Trillion Energy has identified numerous potential gas zones at its SASB gas field in the Black Sea. CREDIT: TRILLION ENERGY

sectors in Romania and would generate significant contributions to the state budget.”

The introduction of a tax on offshore gas income in 2018 had been a particular issue discouraging commitment – as reported by Reuters, it prompted ExxonMobil’s exit and OMV Petrom’s decision to put the Neptun Deep project on hold. During 2022, the law was amended to reduce the tax and remove export restrictions. Gas producers are still pushing the government to improve regulation to speed up development.

The exit of ExxonMobil was finalized in August when state-controlled Romgaz, Romania’s largest natural gas producer and main supplier, announced that it had secured 50 percent of the rights over the Neptun Deep project by acquiring all the shares issued by ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Romania.

OMV Petrom holds the other 50 percent in Neptun Deep.

In December, Reuters reported that OMV Petrom and Romgaz had filed paperwork that brought them closer to starting extraction at Neptun Deep, which holds an estimated 42-84 billion cubic meters of gas. However, OMV Petrom said it would not make a final investment decision until mid-2023, as it awaited clarification from the government on the newly amended offshore gas law.

FIRST GAS CELEBRATED

There has been some movement. In June 2022, Black Sea Oil & Gas (BSOG) and its partners Petro Ventures Resources and Gas Plus Dacia announced that production had started from the Midia Gas Development (MGD) Project and first gas had been delivered to Romania’s national transmission system.

Expected to deliver 0.5 billion cubic meters in 2022, the MGD project’s peak production is put at 1 billion cubic meters per year. MGD represents the first new offshore gas development in Romania in more than three decades. The start of production was welcomed by Romania’s Prime Minister, Nicolae Ciucă, who

said: “The Romanian Government will always be a partner of all investors who add value to our country and contribute to the wellbeing of our citizens.” The Offshore Law allowed the continuation of natural gas exploitation projects in the Black Sea, “with prospects of turning Romania into a gas exporter in the coming years,” he said.

BSOG CEO Mark Beacom added: “It has been a long and challenging journey to finally reach this significant milestone for the country. A number of firsts were achieved in Romania, all during a global pandemic and, more recently, conflict in Ukraine that threatened to impact Black Sea operations.”

While providing 10 percent of Romania’s gas demand, the project was also laying the path and possibly even the infrastructure for other developers in the Black Sea, he added.

Three months later, however, as gas producers urged the government to improve regulation, Beacom noted: “The potential for discovering gas in the Romanian Black Sea is huge –it’s already been proven. But if your point is just to find discoveries and let them sit there for 30 years, it has no point.”

OMV Petrom chief executive Christina Verchere added: “Development time needs to get much shorter. You have to have the right regulatory and fiscal framework, and this is what we found challenging – it hasn’t aways been there.” BB

Felicity Landon is an award-winning freelance journalist specializing in the ports, shipping, transport and logistics sectors.

“Development time needs to get much shorter. You have to have the right regulatory and fiscal framework, and this is what we found challenging – it hasn’t aways been there.”

– Christina Verchere, OMV Petrom chief executive

Holleman carried three reactors for a Romanian refinery, each 18.45 meters long, 3.6 meters wide, 4.2 m high and weighing 108 tonnes. CREDIT: HOLLEMAN

AMBITIOUS, BUT UNACHIEVABLE TARGETS FOR EUROPEAN WIND?

Manufacturers Voice Supply and Infrastructure Concerns

Cross-border cooperation, faster permitting/less bureaucracy, a strong supply chain and massive investments in offshore grid infrastructure, port facilities and vessels: the Marienborg Declaration has set an ambitious target for offshore wind in the Baltic Sea, and much will be needed to deliver on its commitments.

The Baltic Sea holds “a substantial but largely untapped potential for offshore wind,” says the Declaration. The target agreed by the eight signatories is 19.6 gigawatts (GW) by 2030, with plans to consider a 2040 target later on. To put this in perspective – in 2022, the Baltic Sea had just 2.8GW of installed offshore wind capacity.

This is not just about decarbonization; it is about the urgent need to phase out the dependence on Russian

Region: Europe

Problem: Supply chain support for lofty offshore wind targets in Europe could come up short

Solution: Targets need to be married with concrete commitments for projects in the region

energy, a dependence which has been made painfully clear since Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The Declaration notes that more offshore wind in the Baltic Sea can accelerate the phase-out of Russian energy by replacing fossil fuels, “through, for example, electrification, increasing renewable fuels, diversifying and decarbonizing gas-networks,

BY FELICITY LANDON

increased sector integration and a green hydrogen economy, including necessary transmission and pipeline infrastructure.”

Development of adequate power generation capacities, stronger grids and interconnections while removing internal bottlenecks, alongside a wellfunctioning internal energy market will increase the resilience and energy security of the countries involved, it says.

So far, so good. But setting targets is one thing – achieving them is something else entirely.

“The Marienborg Declaration with the target to install almost 20GW of offshore wind turbines in the Baltic Sea by 2030 is important for Vestas and can make a difference,” said Johannes Schiel, director of public affairs for Northern and Central

CREDIT: ROLL GROUP

Europe at Vestas. As he pointed out, it is one of a series of such declarations in Europe and globally, specifying targets for offshore wind energy. In May 2022, the governments of Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany set targets for their ambitions in the North Sea, for 65GW by 2030. With the North Sea Energy Cooperation, France, Ireland, Luxemburg and Norway joined the club and increased the interim target to 76GW, with further targets of 193GW in 2040 and 260GW in 2050.

“There’s a big ‘but’, however,” Schiel said. “Targets help us to prepare investment decisions, but concrete projects are key. And what we experienced in many European countries in 2022 was in fact a market that – despite more targets – was shrinking, rather than growing. European countries need to strengthen the wind energy supply chain and overcome the slow and bureaucratic process to hand out new permits. Otherwise, the best targets won’t make an impact.”

TARGETS MUST BE REALISTIC

Jagna Kubańska-Łyczakowska, head of public affairs in Poland at Vestas, said that targets are as realistic as the measures that are taken to reach the targets. “The steps we see in Poland, the Baltic States and the Nordic countries around the Baltic Sea are fast and impressively large. We see the projects from the first round in Poland materializing and those of the second round ahead. Lithuania as well as jointly Estonia and Latvia are taking brave ambitious steps. The targets of Sweden and Finland are specific and impressive.”

Marine resources, skills and infrastructure are available in Poland and around the Baltic Sea, but also need to be much further developed, he said. “We are supporting this – based on our workforce in Poland with more than 600 employees – mostly based in Szczecin and working in onshore wind, but we will soon have a similar amount of workers in our new factory in Szczecin.”

Without targets, long-term investments in infrastructure such as ports,

logistics including installation vessels or production capacities like the Vestas assembly factory in Szczecin, would not be possible, Kubańska-Łyczakowska said.

“To decide on investments, we need to consider the long-term strategy of the region, the visibility of the potential order pipeline, the presence of our partners and stakeholders, and a lot of other commercial factors which go into the decision-making process. Order intakes and preferred supplier agreements like the 1.2GW Baltic Power project in Poland give us, therefore, leeway.”

Baltic Power, a joint venture between PKN Orlen SA and Northland Power Inc, has chosen Vestas as its preferred turbine supplier for this project, located 23 kilometers off the Polish coast, near Łeba. Once completed, it will be Poland’s largest wind project to date.

The Vestas factory, due to open in the second half of 2024, will assemble nacelles and hubs for the V236-15.0MW offshore wind turbine, supporting domestic and global demand.

The fact that Vestas is building this factory shows confidence in how attractive the region is for offshore wind, said Lizet

Ramirez, Wind Europe’s offshore and floating wind expert.

“The Polish offshore wind market has gained a lot of momentum and is on track to become one of the countries with more than 5 percent market share by the end of this decade. They plan to have at least 5.9GW installed – and these are the projects already secured,” she said.

The way that Vestas can set up the supply chain at/from Szczecin makes sense, Ramirez said – producing the components close to where they will be needed.

HURDLES OF SHORTAGE AND DELAYS

Wind Europe sees the Marienborg Declaration as “a great start”, but Ramirez highlighted issues around regulations, delays in permitting and a predicted shortage of installation capacity.

In mid-2022, Wind Europe and the Polish Wind Energy Association published a report on the availability of offshore wind vessels up to 2030, focusing on the Baltic Sea region. The conclusion was that investments in new vessels are urgently needed for Poland and other Baltic Sea countries to deliver their offshore wind ambitions.

“For the Baltic Sea, almost 2,300 foundations and turbines will have to be installed and most of the new foundations will be heavier than 2,000 tonnes,” Ramirez said. “Almost half of the turbines will be 15 megawatts (MW) or more – very large turbines. Approximately 4,000 kilometers of

Lizet Ramirez Wind Europe

Dignitaries gathered at the Baltic Sea Energy Security Summit in Denmark to sign the Marienborg Declaration. CREDIT: AST

export cables and 4,600 kilometers of inter-array cables are required to build what is needed by 2030. It is challenging; it is crucial that the countries that have a target set ways to support the expansion of the supply chain.”

The report concluded there would be a shortage of foundation installation vessels, or FIVs, and wind turbine installation vessels, or WTIVs, by 2024 and 2025, but the biggest demand for FIVs and WTIVs will be between 2028 and 2030. “By the end of the decade, single turbines could reach up to 20MW in scale. During the peak, 5-10 FIVs and 5-9 WTIVs will be needed in the Baltic Sea. These vessels are facing additional challenges as offshore wind turbines are increasing in size and weight.”

For cable laying vessels, the gap between supply and demand will be even greater over the next eight years, said the report. Poland alone would

need three to four of these vessels.

Ramirez said it was important that the Baltic Sea countries viewed this as a whole industrial strategy. “There are ways we can reduce the number of vessels needed – maximizing their usage by means of cooperation.”

Because the wind farms will neighbor each other, sometimes just a few kilometers apart, governments can insist on a cooperation/phased approach. In the case of WTIVs, this could reduce the number needed from nine to five in the early years and from 13 to seven towards the end of the decade, Ramirez said.

“It is not easy to ask a developer that has been designing a wind farm only looking at their own project to then work with someone else,” she noted. “But we should get the most benefits possible.”

More dramatically, she said if there is no cooperation on foundation installation, the Baltic Sea would be

using almost half of the FIVs available in the world today.

“We can schedule projects to alleviate pressure on the supply chain – not everyone needs the same commissioning date. We know most of the contractors will be reluctant to do this but if we continue building as we are, we will only hit half of our targets.”

There is a clear trend for shortening the supply chain by setting up manufacturing sites closer to (or at) ports, Ramirez said. “Otherwise you have heavy, large components being transported by road or ship, which is more expensive. You have to think about minimizing the lifting and the transport distances. These are the solutions we are seeing.”

EUROPEAN CONSTRUCTION SUPPORT

Wind Europe believes European companies are still very well placed to manufacture wind turbine components, she said, with the expertise to make turbines more efficient, resilient and adaptable to the coming challenges. “In terms of technology and innovation, it is Europe that is driving this.”

However, there is a ‘but’ here too. “The topic to mention is raw materials. China supplies about half of these,

“We talk to turbine manufacturers and developers and they have two major risks. They believe they can produce the components and get staff, etc., in the supply chain but port infrastructure and installation vessels will become an issue from 2025-26.”

– Theis Gisselbaek, CCO at the Port of Grenaa

Ulstein has developed an 8,000t foundation installation vessel. A Wind Europe and the Polish Wind Energy Association report concluded there would be a shortage of foundation installation vessels by 2024 and 2025. CREDIT: ULSTEIN

mainly iron. The European Commission has said we must not change our energy dependence to a raw materials dependency on China.”

The recently announced European Critical Raw Materials Act will be important here: it will forecast what is needed in terms of raw materials across sectors, build alliances with new source countries and reduce the high dependency for raw materials on one country. This will build a more resilient supply chain for offshore wind, Ramirez said.

In terms of installation, there is increasing interest in floating turbine installation methods as opposed to the traditional jack-up vessel installation. Ramirez also highlighted the emergence of ‘hybrid’ or cross-border projects – wind farms built with a direct connector to more than one country. These enable developments with reduced infrastructure and cabling and allow for electricity to be dispatched to either market. The first of these, the 605MW Kriegers Flak wind farm , is part of an interconnector between Denmark and Germany. Estonia and Latvia have received Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funding for the Elwind cross-border wind farm in the Gulf of Riga. “We see these kind of cross-border projects will be more important in the future,” she said.

In the ports sector, meanwhile, permitting and environmental licensing issues are threatening to be the bottleneck for investment plans for facilities to support offshore wind installation and O&M, said Theis Gisselbaek, CCO at the Port of Grenaa. To date, the Danish port’s main focus has been on pre-assembly facilities for wind farm projects nearby, in particular the Kattegat area.

“We see a huge push from both the North Sea and Baltic Sea projects for port infrastructure and yet we can’t even accommodate the wind potential in Kattegat,” Gisselbaek said.

“We talk to turbine manufacturers and developers and they have two major risks. They believe they can produce the components and get staff, etc., in the supply chain but port infrastructure and installation vessels will become an issue from 2025-26.”

OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE BOLD IN THE BALTIC

The volumes foreseen to be moved for offshore wind in the Baltic Sea are enormous and hence there is a big opportunity – but the challenge is also the capacity available, said Ole Schmidt, DSV’s vice president for projects.

To date, DSV’s offshore wind focus has mainly been in the North Sea and Asia, but the company has offices in all the Baltic countries (with the exception of Russia’s Kaliningrad), all with project logistics capabilities, he said.

“DSV Projects does transport of foundations such as monopiles, transition pieces, jackets, etc., by multipurpose/heavy-lift vessels from

PORTS FACE COST AND PLANNING DILEMMA

Grenaa has plans to build a second facility for offshore wind but has its own challenges. It is facing enormous building costs because of the increasing price of steel, concrete and other materials, and it has to negotiate the environmental licensing process. “We have started the process to be able to build and utilize the facility. If I say five years, it is fast – it might be six or seven years. It is the same all over Europe – it takes too long to get a permit to build.”

Such is the pressure on port space in the region, wind farm developers have been approaching Grenaa to reserve space many years before a project starts, “because they see that as the biggest threat to their execution plan,” Gisselbaek said. “We are talking to developers who want to book space for projects in 2027. However, for those that are not decided yet because of national tendering processes, they can’t reserve a port area and installation vessel for a project if they don’t know if they have won it yet.”

There may be reasonable confidence of projects to come but ports must balance their own risks. “We didn’t see a project in Kattegat for ten years and now we see three projects a year. Of course that is good, but we can’t invest in project expansion if we are only looking at projects in three to

origins to marshalling points. We do tugs and barges, transport project management, risk assessment, engineering, after-sales logistics, reverse logistics and offshore logistics,” Schmidt said. “DSV is of course aware of the increased offshore wind installations coming over the next few years.”

The company is focusing on closer cooperation across the DSV Projects offices to increase market share and knowledge sharing in offshore wind, he added. “This goes for commercial, operational and technical levels. We are also working on drone deliveries to offshore wind turbines as well as to offshore platforms and to vessels.”

five years. We need some back-up from the government or from owners to say ‘we support you’, and that stage has not yet arrived.”

In the meantime, ‘reservation agreements’ with developers are kept as short as possible. “Perhaps a couple of months and we negotiate in that time in contractual and technical mode to figure out if we can handle the project as the client wants. Then we need a contract. It can have some flexibilities, but it also has an obligation, such as cancellation costs.”

Gisselbaek believes that the need for port infrastructure is more of a challenge than the need for installation vessels. “Vessels are high cost, but from investment decision to building can be two or three years. For a port, it is difficult to achieve that in below five years.”

He called for more government support and a faster system for environmental licensing. As he said, container terminals can expand in stages, adding capacity as required. “But with offshore wind, you can’t say you will deliver half of what the project needs and then two years later the second half of it will come.” BB

Felicity Landon is an award-winning freelance journalist specializing in the ports, shipping, transport and logistics sectors.

THOUGHT LEADER

Wind Power Stronger with Collaboration

Partnerships to Realize Offshore Wind Targets

As the foundation of the energy transition, offshore wind has gained momentum in Europe and the U.S. Governments in several markets have significantly accelerated and increased their expansion plans for offshore wind and green hydrogen.

I have been in the offshore wind supply industry for over 14 years. During this time, I have always experienced the offshore wind supply industry as an internationally cooperating industry in which the companies support each other. This was my motivation for initiating the joint Supply Chain Declaration on Cooperation.

At the WindEnergy Hamburg 2022 exhibition, the Scottish offshore wind association DeepWind, the Business Network for Offshore Wind from the U.S., the Polish Offshore Wind Association, the Norwegian Energy Partners, the Dutch association NNOW, and the Belgian organization POM West Vlaanderen – the North Sea Interreg Inn2Power project partners of WAB e.V. and Hydrogen Innovation Cluster – signed this declaration in which they committed to working together to achieve the growing goals of:

• 19.6 GW of offshore wind by 2030 in the Baltic Sea.

• 76 GW of offshore wind by 2030 in the North Sea.

• 30 GW of offshore wind in the U.S. by 2030.

These cooperating clusters and associations from Europe and the U.S., with a view to the offshore wind supply industry, are aware of the necessity of international cooperation for the required speed of expansion and know what needs to be supported politically to skillfully circumnavigate bottlenecks and make national targets achievable.

A training and qualification offensive is now needed in the countries that are pushing offshore wind development. Sustainable supply chains need sustainable expansion of offshore wind. The cost pressure on the supply industry must be mitigated by measures that make supply

chain development sustainable. Qualitative sustainability criteria for auctions, such as carbon footprint, are one example of suitable measures. Cost reduction successes need international exchange on learning curves and best practices.

Following on from the international wind fair in Hamburg, collaboration has already started. Utmost haste is required. In particular, the shortage of skilled labor – which can only be countered through appropriate training and qualification offers, as well as with the marketing of corresponding training –was marked as a priority. To this end, many valuable ideas have already been collected from the partners, which are to be implemented jointly. We learn from each other in order to become faster.

Cost pressure will strongly hinder the growth of the required international supply industry and must therefore be considered in the tendering process for offshore wind expansion areas. Additionally, the international offshore wind supply industry must be profitable enough to allow sustainable growth. Companies within the offshore wind supply industry should have the possibility to bring innovative products, services and solutions to the market.

These aims are the basis for reaching targets and for a long-term cost degression to allow cost-efficient offshore wind

BY HEIKE WINKLER

energy to meet high energy demand in the mid and long term. To be able to produce green hydrogen, which energyintensive industry urgently needs, new paths must be taken.

WAB e.V. looks forward to working with these experienced associations and with organizations true to its own motto: Stronger together. BB

Heike Winkler is managing director of WAB e.V., the German wind industry association. Bremerhaven-based WAB comprises some 250 smaller and larger businesses as well as institutes from all sectors of the wind industry, the maritime industry as well as research, www.wab.net

Signing of the Supply Chain Declaration. L-R: Paul O’Brien (DeepWind), Melinda Skea (BNOW), Jakub Budzynski (PTMEW), Jon Dugstad (NORWEP), Heike Winkler (WAB e.V.), Eddie Doornbos (NNOW), and Rebecca Verhaeghe (POM West Flanders). CREDIT: CREDIT: WAB E.V.

KILOTONS OF CARGO MOVED IN THE BIG FREEZE

deugro’s Early Involvement with EPC Key to Success

Constructing any major petrochemical plant entails numerous obstacles, with kilotons of components to be transported to site and complex lifting procedures necessary for installation. This process is made all the more difficult, however, when passage to the site involves navigating temperatures as low as -17°C and piloting semi-frozen waterways.

This was the challenge faced by project logistics firm deugro when it successfully delivered 120,000 freight tonnes of cargo for Hyundai Engineering as part of Polish chemical

firm Grupa Azoty’s new Polimery Police plant. Located in Police in northwestern Poland, construction of this vast plant began in January 2020 but was delayed by Covid-19 and complicated by the scale of the out-ofgauge, or OOG, units needed.

The first petrochemical complex producing polypropylene in Poland, construction required OOG units

BY MALCOLM RAMSAY

weighing 7,156 tonnes, (67,800 freight tonnes) to be shipped from Asia to Poland. The largest of these units included an 889-tonne propylenepropane splitter, five 613.98-tonne propylene storage bullets and a 596tonne reactor.

Barging operations took place at the Barkowy jetty in Poland.

CREDIT: deugro

Regions: Europe, Asia

Problem: Sub-zero temperatures and severe route restrictions amplify project complexity

Solution: Long and short horizon planning needed to deal with structural route challenges and more immediate ice impacts

Understanding the unique challenges involved in this move was a central aspect of the project and close communication with the client was essential, not only in winning the contract but throughout every stage of delivery.

“deugro supported Hyundai Engineering since the beginning of the engineering, procurement and construction bidding stage, both commercially and technically,” Jin-Ho Lee, deugro Korea, told Breakbulk. “We also participated in package bidding for the project as a registered logistics partner of Hyundai Engineering. Despite strong competition, deugro was awarded the heavy-lift portion of the project, as the logistics service provider, including offshore, onshore and civil works for the project—exactly the part of the project we bid for.”

EARLY START FOR VISITS AND SURVEYS

Before any operations began, deugro and its sister company dteq Transport Engineering Solutions conducted detailed site visits and route surveys to identify potential obstacles and challenges, and used the data from these visits to plan appropriate transport and engineering solutions, with project preparations spanning approximately one year.

With components fabricated at sites hundreds of kilometers apart, deugro was contracted on a freight on board basis to deliver cargo from the ports of Gunsan and Masan, South Korea and at the Port of Zhangjiagang, China. The cargo would then be shipped to the Port of Morski on the Baltic Sea coast, before onward transport by barge to Barkowy

jetty. Given the difficult conditions expected in Poland, preparations were planned around the unloading sequences and the final discharge method at the Barkowy jetty in Police.

For deugro the first operational stage involved prepping heavy-lift vessels as many of the cargo units were not stackable. This meant the firm had to develop a customized stowage concept to match the vessels’ stowage capacities.

“The reactor and propylene-propane splitter are not very different. However, regarding the propylene storage bullets, at the beginning no saddle was installed so we had to support the installation of the saddle on board at the port of loading,” Lee explains. “Both suppliers’ facilities are close to Gunsan and Masan, so as per the request from Hyundai Engineering, we put a vessel on each port.”

Firstly, 249 cargo units, weighing a total of over 16,000 freight tons, and including the 44-meter-long reactor, were loaded on board Spliethoff’s Ice Class E3 multipurpose vessel Pietersgracht using its on board cranes in South Korea.

A second operation then saw 40 cargo units, totaling 15,962 freight tons, and including the propylene-propane splitter, loaded aboard Jumbo’s heavylift vessel Jumbo Jubilee at the Port of Zhangjiagang. With the cargo safely loaded the components then began their 8,000-kilometer journey to the Port of Morski.

ICY RECEPTION

Upon arrival in Poland the temperature was -17°C, and as a result ice breakers and special tugs had to be arranged to break the ice prior to berthing. For the onward journey in Poland, deugro partnered with engineering and heavy-lift firm Mammoet and forwarder Best Logistics to ensure the path from the port to the project site was seamless.

“In Port Morski Police, the biggest issue was to fit in with the schedule of other ships handled by Grupa Azoty,” Piotr Bossy of Best Logistics explained.

Once berthing slots were secured, the main equipment was discharged directly from the vessels onto three barges, with special care taken to

monitor the vessel’s mooring orientation and wave swells while simultaneous ballasting operations were completed to precisely transfer the cargo. Loadspreading was also carried out with a 400-millimeter timber load-spreading layout on the barge deck and in accordance with the strong point of the vessel and saddle distances of the cargo.

From here the barges sailed south, down the West Oder, to the Barkowy jetty, six kilometers away, where they were discharged to trailers. Local port authority restrictions, however, meant that discharge from the multipurpose vessels to barge and from barge to land could only take place during daylight, while traffic regulations meant that road transport could only be conducted after 2300 hrs. This combined with the fact that the three barges were utilized on consecutive return trips, meant that the window for loading was tight, and as a result transport took six weeks in total.

What’s more, the barges faced ice thickness of over 5 centimeters, outside of the normal operating conditions for inland barges, so the team had to arrange ice breaking services from Port Morski.

Bossy of Best Logistics commented: “Luckily for us, in Port Barkowy Police, Grupa Azoty dumps warm water, so it never freezes,” but added that the entry canal to Port Barkowy Police caused problems as “we had as little as 2-meter clearance when passing through with 20-meter-wide pontoons.”

VIGILANT ROLL-OFF

During barge unloading at Barkowy, the mooring configuration was also a critical factor, with the team relying on four on-deck winches and an additional temporary bollard on the pier to ensure stability.

“Space-wise, for driving off we had sufficient tolerance, as the civil works and roll-on/roll-off ramp were specifically designed for the pieces of cargo we had to receive,” Rutger Beelen of Mammoet noted. “The biggest challenge was for deugro to find barges or ships which were suitable for the cargo available and had sufficient ballast capacity to keep level with the quay.”

With more than 30 barge trips in

CASE STUDY

total the components were finally ready for transport by land. Here the team relied on Mammoet and its fleet of selfpropelled modular trailers, utilizing Goldhofer PSTs, prime movers and K25 trailers, to make the short trip to the plant construction site. The longest item – the 96-meter-long propylene-propane splitter – was moved on a KAMAG K25 modular platform trailer using two 16-axle lines with a turntable to navigate the narrow turns.

“All heavy cargo was unloaded onto the trailers and had to pass a sewage treatment plant run by the project owner’s parent company. Since there were a lot of underground pipes in that area, the most important tolerance we had to secure was 8 tonnes per axle,” Lee said. “Basically, the ground bearing pressure on all public roads in Poland is 8 tonnes per axle, so all roll-off operations were planned based on that number. This number had to be seriously kept to, as the first place where the roll-off unloading was executed was the Barkowy jetty, which is also the private jetty of the project owner and its parent company.”

EXTENSIVE CIVIL WORKS

These restrictions were compounded by the fact that there was no route from the Barkowy jetty to a public road that did not cross a ‘conveyor route’, on which road modification is prohibited and traffic is unable to stop. As a result, the partners had to oversee construction of a new ramp and 650-tonne flyover bridge to ensure that the cargo could be moved without impacting adjacent railroad tracks. Wooden mats and temporary stools were also added to guarantee that roll-off was executed according to plan.

“Corner simulations and transport drawings required for creating civil works designs were made in 2D using AutoCAD. LIDAR scans were done prior to the start of the civil works, and later again prior to the first transport, to do a clash check in 3D with the transport configuration and biggest piece of cargo,” Beelen said.

Despite the site lying only a few kilometers away, deugro and its subcontractors were forced to carry out extensive civil works for this final stage, with modifications including several road widenings, the installation

of foldable streetlamps, relocation of steam pipes and medium-voltage wires underground, and shutdown of local 110-kilovolt power lines.

With a clear plan in place, the team utilized the SPMTs to make the short trip to the plant construction site. During this move, temperatures hovered between –10°C and –17°C, meaning that considerable amounts of ice and snow had to be removed on a daily basis.

“Supervising such a complex and highly demanding transport during day and night with temperatures down to –17°C is a challenging task for everyone

involved,” Sebastian Rostek, transport engineer for dteq, said. “Safety is our first priority in everything we do – especially under extreme conditions like during this project.” BB

To view a film of the project visit here: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=mADxMISW00Q

Based in the UK, Malcolm Ramsay has a background in business analysis and technology writing, with an emphasis on transportation and ports.

The cargo arrivies at the Port of Morski, Poland. CREDIT: deugro

SPMTs were used to move the cargo to the project site. CREDIT: deugro

FACING UP TO MOTHER NATURE

Weather Challenges Project Cargo, Breakbulk Industries

A CN freight locomotive moves through a snowy landscape. CREDIT: CN

BY LORI MUSSER

Bomb cyclones, cyclone clusters and the “blizzard of the century” – North America faced the full wrath of Mother Nature in 2022.

The bomb cyclone that hit the U.S. West Coast in January 2023 floored power lines, brought flash floods and rock slides and toppled large trees. The North America winter storm in December 2022 left millions without power with warnings of temperatures as low as -70º Fahrenheit.

Upending normal life, even the best project contingency planning cannot overcome some extreme weather events.

Risk mitigation and supply chain resiliency are complex endeavors. They can be especially challenging for breakbulk or specialized dimensional cargoes that might be open to the elements when transported, have temperature-sensitive components, or be easily damaged by load shifts or rough handling caused by heavy weather. Being prepared and proactive, having actionable assets and teams at the ready, and responding rapidly are best practices. So is having a long-term climate-change approach to supply chain management in hand.

The United Nations is convinced global warming is upon us and exacerbates the weather emergencies that impact all industries. It predicts that climate change will cause US$2 trillion in losses by 2030 and that supply chains will suffer seriously.

WHAT’S COMING AND WHERE

To address weather challenges, supply chains must dust off their crystal balls. For cargo owners that need a transformer or some steel on a project site at a set time, it makes sense to mitigate for potential weather-related issues. Early delivery, last-minute rerouting or pulling inventory from an alternate yard or even supplier are possibilities, but simply choosing the optimal supply chain routing in the first place is always a good idea.

Regions: Americas

Problem: Extreme weather can upturn even the hardiest of project contingency plans

Solution: Being proactive, rather than reactive, can lessen the impact of severe weather events

We know that California is the wildfire capital of the U.S., with about 9,000 wildfires that burned more than 2 million acres in 2021 alone (25 percent of all acreage burned annually in the U.S.), according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Lightning is a big culprit, and NOAA reports that earlier, shorter, drier springs set the stage for intense fire seasons in the future. California fires can close roadways and rail routes.

And we know the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico are hurricane hotbeds. According to Universal Property & Casualty Insurance company, Florida has been hit by more hurricanes than any other state (41 percent of the 292 hurricanes recorded since 1851). The second most hurricane-prone state is Texas. Hurricanes may come with high winds, torrential rain, flooding and modal closures.

In northern climates, extreme cold can also be particularly challenging. Last year, the China State Railway Group unveiled a bullet train that can operate at up to 350 kilometers per hour (217 mph) in temperatures as low as -40°C. Its innovative features reportedly include bolts made with a chromium-molybdenum alloy, temperature-resistant brake control devices, and stainless-steel pipes equipped with heating devices.

According to Canada’s CN Railway, a number of train components grow temperamental in extreme cold. The company’s new ‘2022-2023 Winter Plan: Meeting the Challenge’, outlines a comprehensive plan of attack on cold, and its video, The Tipping Point, shows that at temperatures of 25°C and below, the physical properties of steel are stressed, increasing the chance of defects and surface

fractures, and train braking systems are subject to freezing which can lead to lost air brake pressure and result in longer air brake system charging/ recharging times. These are just a few of the significant safety issues that force train length reductions and reduced speeds.

TECH TOOLS FOR THE JOB

There are a plethora of technologies to help carriers and cargo owners re-route, wait it out, protect their shipments, and get back up and running quickly.

For the past three years, Wallenius Wilhelmsen has made significant investments in its IT and cloud infrastructure and has been working on installing sensors onboard vessels to obtain the data relevant for cutting back fuel consumption. These sensors monitor vital vessels’ operational parameters such as fuel consumption, shaft power, speed, electricity consumption and more.

“We can now harvest this data using cloud technology, then run it through a complex mathematic model which, with the help of AI technology like that from DeepSea, ultimately provides the vessel captain with detailed instructions regarding optimal route and vessel speed. These tools give instructions foreseeing sailing conditions with great precision when correlated with weather forecast prognosis updates. No human being, no matter how many years of experience they have, can compete with these automated sailing instructions. It reduces emissions, it reduces fuel consumption, and it increases safety during operation,” Geir Fagerheim, senior vice president of marine operations at Wallenius Wilhelmsen, said to Breakbulk.

Bill Kerrigan is chief commercial officer for industrial freight logistics specialist, RPM Freight Systems. He said RPM handles complex loads in every type of extreme weather.

Bill Kerrigan

RPM Freight Systems

LOGISTICS PERSPECTIVE

be brought in out of the weather, cargo pickups may be expedited, cranes and other equipment get secured,” Dibble said.

Port construction projects are a special concern and site-specific risk management plans are activated. They might include securing and safeguarding structures and equipment, or removing equipment and materials where possible. Construction chemicals, paints and fuels get extra attention to ensure they don’t end up in the ground or in waterways.

“The focus of our contingency planning is a combination of customer and carrier support, our network of carriers providing a wide array of equipment types, realtime tracking and onsite solutions,” Kerrigan said. Individualized, comprehensive contingency planning with each customer ensures loads reach their destinations.

“Once we determine the proper equipment necessary for transport from point A to point B, we identify qualified and trusted carriers for each job. Through the power of proprietary technology, we can optimize lane data to identify the best available routes,” Kerrigan said.

Last year, Bechtel joined a global alliance to advise on infrastructure resilience and urban preparedness and protect communities from extreme heat.

As the only engineering, procurement and construction partner in the D.C.-based Extreme Heat Alliance, Bechtel will “use its experience of designing resilience standards; developing guidelines supporting climate-proof construction standards; performing cost-benefit analyses of innovations that can make infrastructure more resilient; and collaborating with regional institutions to make existing infrastructure more robust and efficient to support projects that protect communities from extreme heat,” according to a company statement.

WHEN, NOT IF, IN US SOUTHEAST

Like EPCs, ports have a great deal of extreme weather expertise. Cory Dibble is director of public safety and security at Port Canaveral. He described a robust heavy weather plan that incorporates Coast Guard conditions alerts, best forecasts available, informed decision-making, collaborative resources and some hard-earned insights from lessons learned throughout the region.

“We work collaboratively to ensure there are no gaps in preparedness. Security, safety and resiliency are priorities. And then we focus on returning to operation as quickly as possible after the storm,” Dibble said.

When a tropical weather system is approaching, each port department and partner has a checklist. “Port Canaveral is not a safe haven. The Coast Guard sends vessels over 500 gross tons out to sea. The Port’s response and recovery assets, such as inspection vessels, are pre-positioned in nearby waterways. There is a lot of coordination with tenants – terminals and yards get cleaned up, landed cargo is secured and may

Perhaps the most important element of Port Canaveral’s extreme weather management is communications with staff, tenants and other port stakeholders, and emergency management support, Dibble said. Fortunately, “ports now have representation in the Florida Division of Emergency Management’s State Watch office. We can reach them, and have a single point of contact,” to relay and receive information statewide. This is a recent development spurred by issues such as energy shortages faced five years ago with Hurricane Irma.

WORKING AHEAD VITAL

Advance planning is key to good coordination. The Coast Guard closes the port, personnel are sent home (with the exception of Brevard County Sheriff’s Office and Canaveral Fire Rescue teams who ride out the storm at the Port if it is Category 3 or below). The Port’s response teams do an immediate post-storm life/safety assessment (looking for dangers like downed power lines and flooding), then select teams of Canaveral Port Authority staff, tenants, and emergency contractors are recalled to do a port-wide damage assessment. Eventually all other staff and personnel are recalled.

“Our best practice is prepositioning assets. We are proactive, not reactive. The sooner a vessel is in the water to survey the port to check for navigational issues, the sooner the Coast Guard can reopen the port – in hours instead of days. That’s the number one goal,” Dibble said. Usually the waterways are opened with restrictions at first. It takes time to assess all impacts. At the same time, teams are out to ensure roadways, bridges and facilities are clear and safe to get port operations moving again.

Advance planning is key to good coordination at Port Canaveral.

CREDIT: PORT CANAVERAL

Cory Dibble

PORT Canaveral

LOGISTICS PERSPECTIVE

Northeast Florida has seen its fair share of hurricane impacts, fortunately with no recent direct hits.

Rick Schiappacasse is director of forest products and specialty cargoes for JAXPORT. He said that the port’s contingency planning is thorough: “For breakbulk and project cargoes, everything is pre-planned,” with broad collaboration and exceptional communication between the port, the maritime community, customers and other supply chain members. He said hurricane preparedness is a well-oiled machine. There are some commodity-specific preparations, honed by long years of experience with tropical weather. For example, simply rolling down warehouse doors isn’t enough; some facilities barricade doors, often making use of available containers, railcars or heavy equipment.

But as much as possible, the port tries to move high and heavy cargo out before a storm. “For transformers and similar cargo, the moves are pre-programmed to go through the port rather quickly. Most of the time we don’t store them. The really heavy stuff goes directly between ship and truck or barge, so we don’t usually have cargo stuck at the port during a storm situation,” Schiappacasse said.

For planning and preparation, response and recovery, technology has made life easier. “We now have camera access to almost everything. After a storm we do a video assessment of dangers and damage before people show up,” he added.

Another boon to emergency response and recovery has been the Government Emergency Telecommunications Service (GETS). In decades past, when extreme weather wiped out cell towers, communications were stymied. “Now we have a communications plan in place that works well,” Schiappacasse said.

Transportation infrastructure is more robust than ever before, but it is challenging to prepare for the long term. Transportation entities may not know how much or when sea level will rise, or just how exactly rising temperatures will impact their weather, but many are doing mitigation assessments and focusing on resiliency.

Based in the U.S., Lori Musser is a veteran shipping industry writer.

GOVERNMENT SERVICES AT HAND

For ubiquitous weather challenges, most governments offer help.

In the U.S., the Army Corps of Engineers, or USACE, has multilayered proficiencies and mandates to help industry get safely through extreme weather, such as hurricanes, that have a predilection for shoaling up shipping channels.

Donnie Walker is military planner and field force engineering program manager for the South Atlantic Division, USACE. He said USACE operations include Pre-Incident Preparedness: “This could be in a form of port exercises, ‘All Hazards and Hurricane Table Top Exercises’, workshops, individual/team training, etc.” The Corps’ contingency plans cultivate synchronization with federal partners, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, major support commands and USACE Districts. And, USACE maintains survey equipment across the region, allowing swift response and support of U.S. Coast Guard port opening operations.

“The typical damage after a storm is sediment shoaling, debris or

obstructions in the channel, and damage to Aids to Navigation. USACE and Coast Guard work in close coordination to preposition survey vessels to identify channel impacts,” Walker said. Along with routine dredging contracts, USACE also utilizes the U.S. Navy Sea Systems Command to provide emergency response for the removal of sunken vessels and other obstructions.

Jeffrey Carroll is the emergency manager, South Atlantic Division of USACE. He said: “Hurricanes manifest either off the west coast of Africa or in the Gulf of Mexico. With the average speed of 10 miles per hour, it takes several weeks before these systems reach [our] area of operation… As hurricanes get closer and the models provide more clarity as to where the systems will go, funding requests are made, Emergency Operation Centers are activated, FEMA activates, and assets are prepositioned.”

Keeping channels open is an imperative. U.S. seaports handled close to half of the country’s roughly US$4.6 trillion in trade in 2021, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. BB

Jeffrey Carroll USACE

Donnie Walker USACE

USACE pre-incident weather preparedness can include table top exercises.

CREDIT: USACE

EXTREME WEATHER DEMANDS MORE FROM LOGISTICS MANAGERS

No one Can Foretell the Severity of a Winter Season

BY JOHN AMOS

Ideliver two columns, then return to Italy for two more columns. One round trip took 30 days of steaming plus five lay days. While western Canadian ports were much closer to the jobsite, they could not be used because the columns were too large

to move through several railroad tunnels. The first ship arrived on time after narrowly avoiding an impending worker strike at the fabricator in Italy during the loadout that would have delayed the ship’s scheduled sailing date.

John Amos

f you work in North America, you know winter weather can present severe challenges to delivering major project components to remote jobsites when strict delivery dates are set. While managing the logistics for a multi-billion-dollar oil project in northern Canada in the 1980s, I faced several major incidents during the transportation of four 365-ton refinery columns from Italy to the jobsite. We had just four months when the railroad line for the last 200 miles to the jobsite was frozen to a depth of seven feet and could support the weight of the 12-axle rail cars and loads. If we missed this window there would be a year’s delay.

We had to make sure that everyone involved understood the coordination that would be necessary. For instance, it was difficult to obtain all four rail cars needed for at least two months. Fortunately, we had a good relationship with a railroad that could supply the fourth car.

To make the schedule more difficult the ship delivering the columns to an eastern Canadian port had to

Archive photo of the 365-tonne refinery reactor following the rail accident. CREDIT: JOHN AMOS

Upon arrival at the Canadian port a severe storm and freezing weather conditions jeopardized the discharge. The ship could not reach the berth to unload the columns onto the waiting railcars. It took two days to clear ice from the face of the berth and rail tracks on the dock. Excellent teamwork by all involved resulted in only a minor delay.

RAIL STRIKE

The first two columns moved west without incident until two days later when I received a call at 0200 hrs that there had been a railroad accident when one of the columns struck a train moving in the opposite direction. It was caused by the train crew conductors disregarding their written train orders to not pass another train on a curve.

The result: one of the column nozzles struck the other train. There was no derailment, and no one was hurt, but there was a three day delay while the column was examined by

BREAKBULK VETERANS

project engineers for any damage. The only damage was to the protective cover on the nozzle of the heavy wall column and a brief fire from the low nitrogen purge in the column.

After a 10-day rail transit the first two columns finally reached the end of the railroad line which was across a river from the jobsite. Again, the winter window came into play. Because the river was frozen, the columns could be loaded on hydraulic platform trailers and safely transported across the ice. The railcars then traveled back to the port to receive the other two columns which then moved without incident to the jobsite.

Although the winter window was winding down, the cold temperatures allowed the railcars to go to a western Canada port city to transport two additional locally fabricated refinery components that were smaller and could move through several railroad tunnels.

This completed the need for the railcars, and they were returned to their respective railroads, one of which claimed damage to one of the cars. Although we disagreed on the severity of damage, we decided to authorize the repair so the car could go off-hire sooner.

This entire effort took months of planning and input from many individuals, and it was critical that each understood what would be required as well as the infrastructure limitations. The major unknown was how severe the winter weather would be, and no-one can foretell that. In my experience, it’s best to plan for the worst and celebrate when things go right along the way. BB

John Amos is the co-founder of Breakbulk Americas. He spent most of his career as the head of logistics for global EPC Bechtel Corp. and now runs his own consulting firm, Amos Logistics.

Snow, ice and freezing temperatures don’t stop project cargo moves. Here a few of our favorite photos, submitted by our readers.

This photo, taken in North Dakota, is not only a great one but has special meaning to everyone at Berard. It was taken by one of Berard’s team members, Trey Chapman. Trey was a well-liked and dedicated team member who sadly succumbed to cancer at the age of 35. Berard submitted this photo in Trey’s memory.

Berard recently transported this 130,000 lb. electrical building 2,146 miles from Houston, TX to Killdeer, ND using a nine axle extendable drop-deck. The trip was completed in six days, which was right on schedule.

CREDIT: BERARD

ARC’s roll-on, roll-off vessel Honor sailing by Drammen village in Norway.

CREDIT: ARC

Mark W. Barker discharging a load of special bar quality steel at the Duluth Cargo Connect facilities in Duluth, Minnesota.

CREDIT: DULUTH SEAWAY PORT AUTHORITY, DAVID SCHAUER

Breakbulk Events & Media’s biweekly BreakbulkONE newsletter keeps the industry connected between Breakbulk events in Dubai, Rotterdam and Houston. Here’s selection of recent subscriber favorites.

Subscribe at https://breakbulk.com/page/one

BERTLING TRANSPORTS TOWER FROM UK TO SINGAPORE

Unit Transported Via Suez Canal, Indian Ocean and Strait of Malacca

Project forwarder Bertling Logistics was recently called on to ship a 909tonne intervention tower from Port Clarence on the River Tees in northern England to Singapore.

The move was carried out for FTAI Ocean, a subsea services provider for the offshore oil and gas industry. The tower system, used for well intervention and plug and abandonment operations, was earmarked for installation on FTAI Ocean’s DP3 Well Intervention Vessel, the Pride

At Port Clarence, Bertling’s project team faced a number of challenges.

A lack of available draught at the yard meant the 40-metre-high tower had to be “lightered” by barge across the river to the waiting heavy-lift vessel at the Port of Middlesbrough, which boasts much deeper draught.

The unit had been jacked up to SPMT height using four, 500-tonne

capacity perpetual climbing jacks, with Bertling providing design assistance to allow the retrofitting of the jacking lugs used to insert the SPMT’s beneath the tower and move it to the quay edge.

The logistics specialist also had to contend with headroom restrictions at the historic Tees transporter bridge. Safe passage under the bridge at a certain tide height was agreed with the Harbour Master, with suitable draught and tidal curves available during neap tides on six days per month.

The vessel was able to pass under the transporter bridge “with just over 1 metre clearance”, Bertling said.

From the UK, the heavy-lift vessel, loaded with the tower and some additional oversized cargo, sailed south via the Suez Canal, the Indian Ocean and the Strait of Malacca – the latter a 550mile stretch of water offering carriers the shortest shipping route between

the Indian Ocean and the Far East. The ocean-going phase of the project took 28 days.

Prior to arrival in Singapore, Bertling’s engineering team had installed an elevated ramp on the shipyard quay and spacer barges to mitigate the limited draught at the receiving jetty. Once docked, the hulking unit was reloaded onto SPMT trailers and rolled out of the vessel into the yard.

“The transportation project was successfully completed because of careful planning and cooperation between Bertling Logistics’ heavy-lift and engineering team and key first-class subcontractors,” Bertling said. BBONE

Meet Bertling Logistics at Breakbulk Europe, 6-8 June in Rotterdam and at Breakbulk Americas, 26-28 September in Houston.

CREDIT: BERTLING

BREAKBULKONE

BMT

HANDLES

CARGO FOR BASRA REFINERY PROJECT

Basra Multipurpose Terminal has been tasked with handling cargo for the Basra Refinery Upgrade Project, which will include some of the largest industrial components ever to be discharged in Iraq.

The overhaul at the Basra facility in southern Iraq is designed to boost processing capacity from 210,000 to 280,000 barrels per day.

Refinery owner South Refineries Company, part of Iraq’s Oil Ministry, awarded Japanese Gasoline Company an EPCC contract in 2020 to install a number of primary processing plants, including a fluid catalytic cracking unit, a vacuum distillation unit and a diesel desulfurization unit.

The project, aimed at reducing dependence on imported fuels, is slated for completion in 2025, according to the Japanese contractor.

Erkan Erkocu, general cargo operations manager at BMT, told Breakbulk the main inland transport contract began in September and would run through to March 2024.

The largest units slated for delivery would weigh up to 870 tonnes and measure 83 meters long.

According to Erkocu, the planning phase of the project involved a comprehensive assessment of the

port’s existing structures including quays, yards and storage space, and the turning radius of transport assets. BBONE

Meet BMT at Breakbulk Middle East, 13-14 February in Dubai.

GEORGIA SHIFTS BREAKBULK OPERATIONS TO BRUNSWICK

Georgia Ports Authority is migrating breakbulk operations at the Port of Savannah’s Ocean Terminal to the Port of Brunswick as part of a longerterm initiative to convert the former into a container-only facility.

The Port of Savannah comprises the deepwater Garden City Terminal, the fourth busiest container handling facility in the U.S., and Ocean Terminal, which handles breakbulk and roll-on, roll-off operations.

However, a plan already sanctioned by GPA to renovate the docks at the 200-acre Ocean Terminal and expand container operations there will see breakbulk cargo carried by Wallenius Wilhelmsen Ocean shifted to Brunswick’s Colonel Island Terminal.

Construction has already begun on 360,000 square feet of new warehousing for auto processing at Colonel

Island, as well as three additional buildings and 85 acres of auto storage space on the south side of the island. According to a spokesperson at GPA, breakbulk cargo currently handled at Ocean Terminal will move to Colonel’s Island between August and September 2023, once the new warehousing is completed. The 85

acres will also start coming online in September 2023, the spokesperson said.

After Baltimore, Brunswick is the second busiest hub for roll-on, roll-off cargo in the U.S., last year moving 650,000 units of vehicles and heavy machinery, 10 percent up on 2020. BBONE

BMT handles out-of-gauge cargo for the Basra project.

CREDIT: BMT

Breakbulk handling at Ocean Terminal.

CREDIT: GPA

AGL SHIPS PROJECT CARGO FOR FINNISH PULP MILL

Alexander Global Logistics was hired to deliver a batch of heavy-lift components for pulp producer Metsä Fibre’s new bio-product mill in Kemi, western Finland.

The units, which included generator, turbine and condenser sets for the project’s power plant, were loaded onto trailers then shipped by roll-on, roll-off vessel from Germany to Kemi Port’s bulk cargo-handling Ajos Terminal.

At Ajos, the components were transferred from the German-registered trailers onto Finnish flat-beds using a hydraulic lifting system, then transported by road to the project site.

“This solution was not only cost effective, but it also reduced time,” the company said.

According to Riza Gögüs, business development manager for projects at Bremen-based AGL, the biggest challenge was obtaining road permits in Finland.

“Due to the transport weight and dimensions, we had to arrange several meetings with the Finnish authorities and engineering offices to survey the bridge structures along the route and

find a common solution. It took a lot of time,” Gögüs told Breakbulk Metsä Fibre is one of three major pulp producers in Finland alongside UPM and Stora Enso.

The Kemi mill is replacing an existing mill at the same site, with operations slated for start-up in the third quarter of 2023. The project will use some 7.6 million cubic meters of sustainable pulpwood per year to produce 1.5 million tonnes of softwood, birch pulp and other products such as biochemicals and bioenergy.

The US$1.85 billion project will also generate 2.0 TWh of clean electricity

per year, equivalent to about 2.5 percent of Finland’s total power production.

Globally, pulp and paper is set to be a major source of cargo-carrying contracts for years to come, despite prior fears that digitalization and fastevolving consumer behavior would lead to industry decline.

Driven by e-commerce and rising living standards, the global pulp market is expected to grow from US$519 billion in 2020 to US$680 billion by 2027, according to a study. BBONE

Meet AGL at Breakbulk Europe, 6-8 June in Rotterdam.

PORT ESBJERG ORDERS SECOND GIANT LIEBHERR CRANE

Denmark’s Port Esbjerg, one of Europe’s most important hubs for shipping offshore wind turbines, has ordered a second Liebherr LHM 800 mobile harbor crane.

The new crane, slated for delivery in mid-2023, will allow the port to carry out tandem lifts of up to 616 tonnes, a lifting capacity that ranks among the world’s highest.

A first LHM 800 has been in operation at the port since 2019.

Port Esbjerg also confirmed it had ordered a LHM 600 mobile harbor crane, expanding its fleet of Liebherr cranes to six, the largest such collection in northern Europe, it said.

“We have been out shopping, because our goal is to be a global leader,” said Dennis Jul Pedersen, CEO of Port Esbjerg. “Components

in the wind industry keep getting bigger and bigger, and we will get even busier at the port in the coming years. That means we will need the capacity to load two ships simultaneously, and we will be able to do that when we take delivery of the new cranes.”

With a height of 48 meters and a jib length of 64 meters, the LHM 800 is the world’s most powerful mobile harbor crane, capable of handling monster-size monopiles, turbines and other components destined for offshore wind projects.

The crane’s bulk cargo capacity is also unique at 2,300 tonnes per hour. BB ONE Meet Port Esbjerg at Breakbulk Europe, 6-8 June in Rotterdam.

AGL moved generator, turbine and condenser sets for Metsä Fibre’s project. CREDIT: AGL

Port Esbjerg is doubling its fleet of LHM800 cranes. CREDIT: PORT ESBJERG

QATARENERGY, CP CHEM GREENLIGHT TEXAS PETCHEM PROJECT

QatarEnergy and Chevron Phillips Chemical, or CP Chem, have taken a final investment decision to proceed with their US$8.5 billion integrated polymers facility in Orange County, Texas.

The Golden Triangle Polymers project, located 180 kilometers east of Houston, will include a 2.08 million tonne per year ethane cracker – the world’s largest, according to QatarEnergy – and two, 1 million tonne per year high-density polyethylene units.

Construction would start immediately, with start-up slated for 2026, the companies said.

The plant is owned by Golden Triangle Polymers Company, a joint venture in which state-run QatarEnergy holds a 49 percent interest, with 51 percent owned by CP Chem.

The Golden Triangle Polymers project is QatarEnergy’s second largest investment in the U.S. after the US$11 billion it is spending on the Golden Pass LNG production and export facility, also in Texas. That project is expected to come online in 2024.

CP Chem will manage engineering, procurement and construction for the project and operate the facility after start-up.

Contractors involved in the construction phase include Zachry Industrial, Stone & Webster Process Technology, PCL Construction, JGC

QatarEnergy is a member of the Breakbulk Global Shipper Network, a worldwide network of shippers involved in the engineering, manufacturing and production of project cargo. BBONE

AIRBUS BELUGA TRANSPORTS SATELLITE TO KENNEDY SPACE CENTER

Airbus called into action its A300-platform Beluga ST cargo aircraft to fly one of its own telecommunications satellites from Toulouse to the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral in Florida.

The whale-shaped Beluga was tasked with carrying the HOTBIRD 13G unit for France-based satellite operator, Eutelsat. The satellite’s twin, HOTBIRD 13F, was successfully shot into orbit just hours earlier using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. An Airbus spokesperson told Breakbulk the satellite was 5.4 meters long and had a launch mass of 4,476 kilos.

The satellites will be used to enhance the broadcast of more than 1,000 television channels into homes across Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East.

The Beluga ST fleet is being repurposed for outsized freight transport

services after Airbus announced the aircraft would be replaced by six brandnew A330 Beluga XLs, which are used to fly Airbus components to sites in Europe.

Just one Beluga ST has so far begun operations, with another four slated to enter service over the next two years.

The aircraft has a capacity to transport up to 40 tonnes, and while less than the payload of a Boeing 747-F or an Antonov AN124-100, its unique dimensions – which include an inside height of 6.7 meters – means the plane is ideal for carrying oversized cargo for industries such as oil and gas, construction and aerospace.

For the satellite move to Cape Canaveral, the cargo at Kennedy Space Center was unloaded using one of Airbus’s new outboard platforms, a 5-meter-high handling device that is

designed for positioning in advance of an aircraft’s arrival. Up to 20 platforms are slated for deployment at strategic locations worldwide by the end of 2023. BBONE

Meet Airbus at Breakbulk Europe, 6-8 June in Rotterdam and at Breakbulk Americas, 26-28 September in Houston.

America, Kiewit Energy Group, Burns & McDonnell, Emerson Process Management and WT Byler.

The CP Chem petrochemical complex.

CREDIT: CHEVRON PHILLIPS CHEMICAL

Beluga employed to move satellite to Kennedy Space Center.

CREDIT: AIRBUS

PROJECTS IN THIS ISSUE

Name: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, UAE (page 29)

Status: Online

Capacity: 1.6 GW, rising to 5 GW by 2030

Value: US$13.6 billion

Name: Shagaya Renewable Energy Plant, Kuwait (page 29)

Status: Online

Capacity: an estimated 4 GW by 2030

Name: Plambeck Emirates Floating Offshore Windfarm, Saudi Arabia (page 26)

Status: start-up expected in 2027

Capacity: planned 500 MW of installed capacity

Name: Vadinar CDU refinery expansion project, India (page 41)

Status: completion slated for 2024

Capacity: expansion to increase capacity from 405,000 bpd to 920,000 bpd

Name: Panipat CDU refinery expansion project, India (page 41)

Status: completion expected in 2024

Capacity: project to boost capacity from 300,000 bpd to 500,000 bpd

Value: US$4.5 billion

Name: Visakhapatnam refinery expansion project, India (page 41)

Status: completion expected in 2023

Capacity: expansion will increase capacity from 166,000 bpd to 300,000 bpd

Name: Grand Renaissance hydro project, Ethiopia (page 45)

Status: first stage online, expansion slated for 2024 start-up

Capacity: plans in place to raise capacity from current 750 MW to 5.3 GW

Name: Zungeru hydro project, Nigeria (page 45)

Status: first stage online

Capacity: further development will expand capacity from 175 MW to 700 MW

Name: Mpatamanga hydro project, Malawi (page 46)

Status: under development

Capacity: once online, the facility will have a capacity of 350 MW

Name: Western Green Energy Hub hydrogen project, Australia (page 48)

Status: final investment decision to be taken in 2027

Capacity: estimated 50 GW of wind and solar power to produce 3.5 million tonnes per year of green hydrogen

Value: US$70 billion

Name: NEOM green hydrogen plant, Saudi Arabia (page 50)

Status: under development

Capacity: 650 tonnes of green hydrogen per day, with startup slated for 2025/26

Name: SASB natural gas field, offshore Turkey in the Black Sea (page 58)

Status: Canada’s Trillion Energy recently drilled the first well in its 2022-23 drilling campaign

Name: Neptun Deep natural gas project, offshore Turkey in the Black Sea (page 59)

Status: OMV Petrom to make final investment decision in mid-2023

Capacity: project holds an estimated 42-48 billion cubic meters of natural gas

Name: Midia Gas Development (MGD) project, offshore Romania (page 59)

Status: online

Capacity: an estimated 0.5 billion cubic meters delivered in 2022 is expected to rise to 1 billion cubic meters per year for the following three years

Value: US$400 million

Name: Baltic Power offshore wind project, Poland (page 61)

Status: construction to begin in 2024

Capacity: an estimated 1.2 GW of installed capacity

Name: Kriegers Flak windfarm, offshore Denmark in the Baltic Sea (page 63)

Status: online since late 2021

Capacity: 605 MW

Value: US$1.2 billion

Name: Polimery Police petrochemical plant, Poland (page 66)

Status: construction project was 96 percent complete by the end of August 2022

Capacity: propylene dehydration and polypropylene production unite will have a capacity of 437,000 tonnes per year

Name: Kemi bioproduct mill, Finland (page 82)

Status: project developed by Metsä Fibre slated for start-up in third quarter of 2023

Capacity: 7.6 million cubic meters of pulpwood feedstock to produce 1.5 million tonnes of bioproducts.

Value: US$1.85 billion

Name: Basra Refinery Upgrade Project, Iraq (page 80)

Status: expansion slated for completion in 2025

Capacity: project will increase capacity from 210,000 bpd to 280,000 bpd

Name: Golden Triangle Polymers, Houston (page 83)

Status: final investment decision taken in late 2022

Capacity: construction of 2.08 million tonne per year ethane cracker and two, 1 million tonne per year polyethylene units to start immediately. Start-up slated for 2026

Value: US$8.5 billion