ENTHUSIASMCURBED Energy Industry Investments Lag High Gas Prices South America Energy Bonanza Setting an Emissions Baseline UpFront Americas Edition ISSUE
INSIDE THIS ISSUE Digitization for All Shapes and Sizes Maersk Takes the Direct Route Kuwait Looks to Offshore Resources WILDTRUCKING’SUSRIDE Topsy-Turvy of Pandemic-Era Trucking Not Over Yet
4 BREAKBULK MAGAZINE www.breakbulk.com SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022 28 COVER STORY US TRUCKING’S WILD RIDE Topsy-Turvy of Pandemic-Era Trucking Not Over Yet 22 COVER STORY CURBED ENTHUSIASM Energy Industry Investments Lag High Gas Prices 38 REGIONAL REVIEW SOUTH AMERICA’S ENERGY PROJECT BONANZA More than US$1 Trillion to be Invested by 2030 44 PROFILE AMINE FOCUSES ON PARTNERSHIPS Bechtel VP Rethinks Supply Chain in His ‘Learning Journey’ 50 TECHNOLOGY DIGITALIZATION FOR ALL SHAPES AND SIZES Optimization Tools Smooth Project Complications 58 THOUGHT LEADER TIME TO UNIVERSITIESRELATIONSHIPSREDEFINEWITH Paradigm Shift to Recruiting for Purpose Before Position 5038 9 AMERICAS EDITION UPFRONT By the Numbers – South America’s Energy Sector One to One – Grant Wattman, Combi Lift Frame the Future – Adolph Colaco, e2log Career Corner – John Hark, Bertling BreakbulkLogistics Americas White Paper Events Update 34 COMPLIANCE SETTING AN EMISSIONS BASELINE Facilitating a Standardized Reporting Process for Breakbulk 36 THOUGHT LEADER INDUSTRY ALIGNMENT A PRIORITY Measuring Scope 3 Emissions in the Breakbulk Industry Cover Story22 INSIDE THIS ISSUE
WE KNOW WHAT WE'RE DOING
Höegh Autoliners is a global leader in deep sea RoRo transportation services To transport wider, longer and higher breakbulk and project cargo, we have developed specialised handling equipment to ensure your cargo's smooth and safe transportation. With over 90 years of experience from shipping, we can safely say that we know what we're doing, and we do it well
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6 BREAKBULK MAGAZINE www.breakbulk.com SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022 68 ENERGY UPDATE KUWAIT LOOKS TO OFFSHORE RESOURCES Gulf State Taps U.S.-based Halliburton to Support Planned Buildout 74 ENERGY UPDATE OMAN PLOTS GREENER FUTURE Gulf State Targets Five-Fold Increase in Renewable Energy Capacity 78 CASE STUDY POWER TO THE PROJECT MOVERS Tight Fit for Laos Hydropower Task 7460 7868 60 CASE STUDY BUCKING THE NORMS Assembled Harbor Crane Barged Through Gulf 63 THOUGHT LEADER BREAKING DOWN BORDERS America is a Continent, Not a Country 64 PROFILE TAKING THE DIRECT ROUTE Lindahl Leads Maersk’s Special Cargo Transformation 67 THOUGHT LEADER WHY ESG IS A BUSINESS IMPERATIVE Urgent Case for Setting, Delivering ESG Goals 08 EDITORIAL 82 BREAKBULKONE 86 BACK PAGE Also in this issue INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Visit us at BreakbulkSeptemberAmericas28-30atourboothG11-13!RoRo by WW Ocean -The safer, smarter way for your breakbulk Find out more at walleniuswilhelmsen.com Visit us at BreakbulkSeptemberAmericas28-30atourboothG11-13! RoRo by WW Ocean -The safer, smarter way for your breakbulk Find out more at walleniuswilhelmsen.com
To advertise in Breakbulk Media products, visit: SUBSCRIPTIONShttp://breakbulk.com/page/advertise
Paul Scott Abbott Felicity Landon Michael King
MARKETING & MEDIA DIRECTOR
Lori ThomasMusserTimlen
Grant Wattman Combi Lift Americas
DHL Industrial Projects
Dennis Devlin Maersk
Margaret Kidd University of Houston
Johan-Paul Verschuure Rebel Group
REPORTERS
2022 marked the start of Breakbulk media’s aggressive expansion of our event coverage, and a goal of immediacy dur ing the event – for exhibitors, delegates
SENIOR REPORTER
Dharmendra Gangrade Larsen & Toubro Limited
Sarah Schlüter Hapag-Lloyd
8 BREAKBULK MAGAZINE www.breakbulk.com SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022
NEWS EDITOR Carly Fields carly.fields@hyve.group
• “Curbed Enthusiasm,” (page 22), in which Paul Scott Abbott explores how energy industry investments lag recent high gas prices.
Simon West simon.west@hyve.group
DESIGNER
I’ll expectationsandectsdiverseaslogisticsInspokenitastitle.album,rememberalwaystheandtheSuccessfulacatchphrase,hasalwaystome.supplychain–evencomplexandasproj–deliveringexceedingwith
In the run-up to Breakbulk Americas, Breakbulk media has presented eventsrelated content in its digital products, Breakbulk.com, our BreakbulkONE newsletters and in marketing updates. Content has covered speakers and com panies represented at the event through speakers, sponsors, exhibitors and ses sions. Instrumental in this effort has been Simon West, Breakbulk’s senior reporter, who will be on hand covering the Hous ton
BREAKBULK EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
Thisevent.is a unique issue in that we have dual cover stories:
• “U.S. Trucking’s Wild Ride,” (page 28), where Lori Musser – who will be one of our reporters covering Breakbulk Americas – reports that the topsy-turvy of pandemic-era trucking is not over yet.
Stephen “Spo” Spoljaric Bechtel Corp
The name for one of the best albums from global alternative rock band R.E.M., “Automatic for the People,” came from a phrase connected to the Athens, Georgia-based band’s local soul food institution, Weaver D’s Delicious Fine Foods, where “Automatic!” sprung from the lips of wait staff upon taking an order.
And there are more key Americas pieces leading our latest issue:
Anders Maul Blue Water Shipping
Roger Strevens Wallenius Wilhelmsen
Gary Burrows
and those who aren’t attending. We’ve expanded reporting staff at each event, to enable us to report sessions same day – many within an hour of a session’s conclusion. LinkedIn posts are within minutes of the conclusion of sessions. Same-day Breakbulk Studios interviews of key speakers and relevant sponsors and exhibitors are posted to YouTube daily.
That’s an ongoing endeavor with Breakbulk media, and I’m enthused about this issue, as well as our range of print and electronic content, focused on Americas, alongside our global focus. More than half of this issue is Ameri cas-based, an unprecedented scale of event-based coverage.
Nick Davison nick.davison@hyve.group
John Amos, emeritus Amos Logistics
Dennis Mottola, emeritus Global Logistics Consultant
EDITORIAL
• “South America’s Energy Project Bonanza,” (page 38) is West’s effort to cover energy developments, with a par ticular focus on Colombia and Brazil.
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
PORTFOLIO DIRECTOR
Mark Clubb
To subscribe, go to Paddington,TheAorsubscribe-breakbulk-magazinehttp://breakbulk.com/page/,email:gary.burrows@hyve.grouppublicationofHyveGroupplc.Studios,2KingdomStreetLondonW26JG,UK
Ulrich Ulrichs BBC Chartering
unmatched quality and customer satisfac tion equals “Automatic!”
Leslie Meredith leslie.meredith@hyve.group
Gary G. Burrows / +1 904 535 5460 gary.burrows@hyve.group
• “Setting an Emissions Baseline,” (page 34) by News Editor Carly Fields, is based on the executive summit, held at Breakbulk Europe in Rotterdam, which considered the formulation of a stan dardized reporting process for carbon emissions that unifies carriers with EPCs and freight forwarders in fulfilling pro tocol. Next steps will be explored at an executive summit planned for Sept. 29, in an invitation only conversation. The emission story includes a thought piece by Stephen “Spo” Spoljaric, corporate manager of global logistics, Bechtel Cor poration.Automatic!
This issue, we’ve made UpFront the Americas Edition, focusing on people, markets, content, and highlights of event features.UpFront includes By the Numbers on South America’s energy sector; a One-to-One with industry veteran Grant Wattman, Combi Lift’s new president and managing director; Adolph Colaco, founder and CEO of e2log – sponsor of the Breakbulk Global Shipper Network Lounge – with advice for shopping for project logistics software projects; and a thought piece by John Hark, modera tor for the Breakbulk Americas session, “Talent Gap and Future of Work,” that closes the Main Stage on Sept. 29.
Jake Swanson
AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE
UpFront
CREDIT: S&B ENGINEERS
& CONSTRUCTORS AMERICAS EDITION
WHAT’S INSIDE:
This issue, UpFront focuses on the Americas in advance of Breakbulk Americas, Sept. 27-29 at the George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston. Content includes key speakers and industry executives from the Americas as well as previewing the event’s special features.
S&B Engineers and Constructors moved these reactors from the site of manufacture in India to the export port over road via SPMT and barge. Then followed ocean transport to the ports of Freeport and Houston, where they were discharged onto barges and moved to a temporary staging area on land, before being transported by road via SPMT to their final destination, a major ongoing project in the Houston area.
The People and Businesses that Lead This Thriving Industry
*Energy transition sectors include developments in hydrogen, energy storage and carbon capture and storage
1,287 Projects
Renewables 58.0%
UpFront Americas Edition SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022
Source: EICData Stream, August 2022
Conventional Power 6.0%
Source: EICData Stream, August 2022
Source: EICData Stream, August 2022 Guyana Others
Conventional Power 16.0%
Energy Sectors*Transition 6.0%
Renewables 57.0%
GUYANABRAZILSURINAME
Argentina Brazil Chile Colombia
Energy Sectors*Transition 5.0%
Nuclear 0.3%
A look inside South America’s Energy Sector
10 BREAKBULK MAGAZINE www.breakbulk.com PERUCOLOMBIACHILE PARAGUAYURUGUAYVENEZUELAARGENTINABOLIVIA
200150100500 CAPEX in US$m Number of projects 250200150100500 Key Sectors By Number of Projects with Start-up by 2030 Key Sectors by CAPEX through 2030 Key Countries By Active Projects and CAPEX (all sectors) BY THE NUMBERS
ECUADOR
Oil and Gas 21.0%
*Energy transition sectors include developments in hydrogen, energy storage and carbon capture and storage
Nuclear 2.0%
Oil and Gas 29.0%
www.breakbulk.com BREAKBULK MAGAZINE 11 BRAZILFRENCHGUIANA WIND INDUSTRY IN BRAZIL Installed Capacity 22 GW Wind Farms 812 Turbines in operation 9,249 Brazil will have 37.1 GW of wind power installed by 2026 Source: Colombia Energy Ministry Guajira II – Isagen Parque Beta – EDPCameliaRenewables–Celsia Parque Alpha – EDP WindpeshiTumawindRenewables–Enel–EnelE0200i–EPMCarrizal– AESChemesky–EnelAcaciaII–Celsia Investment US$m MW Project – Owner * Start-up by 2026 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 $372.7 $195.4$200.4$200.4$212.4$240.0$280.5$200.4 $80.1$100.2 Source: Brazilian Association of Wind Energy and New Technologies, https://www.abeeolica.org.br OtherMineralFuelNaturalNuclearPhotovaltaicSmallBiomassWindHydrohydroGasOilCoalFossilFuels103.022.016.26.45.12.016.48.83.60.2GWfuelsCarbonRenewables Source: Brazilian Association of Wind Energy and New Technologies, https://www.abeeolica.org.br GW2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2520151050 Colombia Wind Project, Transmission Lines in La Guajira* GUAJIRA Brazilian Electricity Matrix in GW Brazil Wind Capacity Installed 2013-2022 109 9 8 8 7 7 6 6 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 1 1
Grant Wattman, president and managing director at Combi Lift Americas LLC – a member of the Harren & Partner Group –speaks with Breakbulk about building a start-up, geopolitics, and sustainability.
UpFront Americas Edition ONE TO ONE
12 BREAKBULK MAGAZINE www.breakbulk.com SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022
Making Project Moves
I was encouraged to step away from consulting by peers and friends I have known and worked with in the industry. My passion for this industry is as strong as ever and was offered an opportunity to be engaged in launching a product that I believe is a game changer. This is something quite new for me, being on the vessel asset owner side. Harren & Partner Group has a portfolio of assets that Combi Lift can leverage
Transport of boilers from Bilbao, Spain, to Istanbul, Turkey.
CREDIT: COMBI LIFT
in pursuit of projects. My initial step was to establish Combi Lift Americas, which has been accomplished. As its president and managing director I have been introducing Combi Lift and our unique business model to the market, framing our product and our market, and establishing clear sales channels and our approach. We are a project logistics solutions integrator, focused on projects, not the spot market.
I have been very fortunate in my career and have always been in the industrial market space, as a carrier, manufacturer/ distributor, and engineering contractor in heavy manufacturing, project logistics, and freight forwarding. I have held management positions through company board positions. Most recently, I was president and CEO of Agility Project Logistics, which was acquired by DSV and Jade Management Group Inc., my consulting company. September this year marked a major milestone for me: 50 years active in the project logistics industry.
By Carly Fields
Combi Lift’s Grant Wattman Relishes Start-up Opportunity
Q: What’s your background in the project logistics industry?
Q: What prompted your recent move to Combi Lift and what does your role there entail?
We are currently in the phase that many would call start-up. This year is our first year of operation, but we sit within a strong portfolio of services, assets and unique skill sets. We will be
Q: What are you plans for Combi Lift over the short to medium term?
Q: How concerned are you about increasing geopolitical risks on this sector?
Q: What trends are you currently seeing in the project cargo industry?
I am excited and intrigued by technologies and ideas in a couple of areas. First, I’m interested in innovation being introduced around finding fuels, vessel design, displacing use of plastics, and new onshore power solutions and how to make it all sustainable. Second, I’m interested in the overall issue of how to measure your carbon footprint and report on a consistent and aligned standard. Activity is increasing in this area, and it would be good to see it pick up more speed – we can iterate over time and make solutions better. The first step is to measure, and then align externally on the process to spread the benefit. Harren & Partner Group released its first sustainability report at Breakbulk Europe this year.
is critically important that you are agile, and in a position and willing to respond to capitalize on growth. There are lots of moving pieces on the global game board today.
engaging with owners in the energy, mining and renewable sectors, engineering contractors, OEMs, and project logistics forwarders on large project solutions that leverage our key assets. We have an ambitious growth path in expanding offices, adding subject matter experts in existing footprints and building cargo volumes managed. We are currently planning against awards in 2023 that increase traction and provide accelerated momentum.
www.breakbulk.com BREAKBULK MAGAZINE 13
The geopolitical situation today – and what it will be tomorrow – continues to impact supply chain surety, manufacturing locations, available vessel capacity and the cost of doing business. I see this continuing for the foreseeable future and while I do not see it as a concern, it is a factor in strategic choices and to some extent daily operational issues. If you do not see it as such, you should be concerned. I encourage you to say a prayer for global seafarers who continue to be impacted by Covid, Russia’s war on Ukraine and increasing tensions in the Pacific. The business of project cargo is still a people business.
We will continue to see consolidation within the vessel owner and freight forwarder industry and well positioned asset growth among the key multipurpose and heavy-lift owners. The jury is still out on the vessel fuel that will become “the silver bullet,” but until then technology continues with fervor to find the “one.” However, owners cannot wait, so risks are being taken to build-in IMO requirements to vessels currently under construction. On the shipper side you are seeing supply chain sourcing strategies being modified to increase the security of supply chains and geopolitical activity. Some are looking to near sourcing, others are looking to safe harbor sourcing (countries with lower political risks).
Q: What innovation are you most excited about at the moment?
Loading a cold box in Bremen, Germany, on SAL’s Frauke
CREDIT: COMBI LIFT
This is an exciting time to be in the project cargo sector, with our focus currently on mid-2023 and beyond. The Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific continue to be growth areas with sector focus growth in green energy, mining, offshore and potentially a liquefied natural gas project reboot. The current project cargo market is strong, with significant upside. However, it
Q: How do you expect the project cargo sector to develop over 2023 and beyond?
global trade. With bottom lines impacted, logistics became the hotly discussed topic in boardrooms, with a realization that international logistics is the tail that wags the global supply chain dog.
• Will your team find it simple to use and will it be easy to deploy? Software must make the life of your logistics team easier. It must be simple to use, delivering a great user experience, else they will reject it. The best technologies now deliver a B2C experience. If it’s going to take more than a few months to deploy, you must ask why.
Theneed?pandemic unprecedentedtriggereddisruptions to
Software is not a silver bullet. It cannot be thrown on top of bad processes to magically make all problems go away. There is a change management process which your organization will have to go through. You have a golden opportunity to transform logistics at your company.
FACTORS TO CONSIDER
14 BREAKBULK MAGAZINE www.breakbulk.com SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022
By Adolph Colaco
During my more than 25 years in logistics, our leadership only knew we existed when an internal or external customer complained that a piece of equipment wasn’t received, and it was impacting a project or operations.
• Will you get the data you need to better orchestrate your projects? The volume of data generated through project execution is monumental. It comes from different sources, in different forms, at different times. It’s pivotal that the software you choose has real-time dashboards that are configurable to your specific business needs, covering all aspects such as costs, performance, invoicing, carbon footprint, and more.
Adolph Colaco is the Founder & CEO of e2log, a logistics orchestration platform for industrial projects. e2log is also the sponsor of the Global Shipper Network Lounge at Breakbulk Americas, Sept 27-29 at the George R Brown Convention Center in Houston.
• Will it help you orchestrate your international logistics end-toend? Industrial projects involve the shipping of widgets through to super-over-dimensional cargo loads, from anywhere to anywhere in the world, via any mode of transport with multiple logistics providers involved in a single shipment. Ask for a demo to see first-hand if the software can handle such complexity.
Nobody cared whether we had the necessary resources to execute our day-to-day tasks. Millions of dollars would be spent on enterprise resource planning systems that were focused on planning, procurement and so on, but there was never anything left in the budget for logistics. We had emails, spreadsheets and phones; what more could we
When you’re buying a piece of software, you’re actually buying an outcome. It’s therefore imperative to consider certain key factors, to ensure the desired outcome is achieved. Ask some key questions, namely:
built to handle the challenges of your projects.
• Will the software handle the complexities of industrial projects? Every shipment is unique. Software that works for retail, pharmaceuticals and other industries, won’t work for projects. There’s a lot of glitzy marketing material and buzzwords being used nowadays – so dig deep and ask tough questions to ascertain whether the software has been
Advice For Selecting Logistics Software for Projects
“Software is not a silver bullet. It cannot be thrown on top of bad processes to magically make all problems go away.”
FRAME THE FUTURE
C-suites have realized they’ve underinvested in logistics software and are now looking to their logistics leaders for help. It’s a great time to step out of the shadows and make a strategic and positive impact on your company’s broader business, by selecting and deploying the right software.
‘Buying an Outcome’
• Will it support the varying degrees of tech capabilities of your logistics providers across the globe? Project logistics is not only handled and executed by global freight forwarders, but also a myriad of smaller logistics providers that have little to no tech capabilities beyond a smart phone and desktop. Ensure that the software can be deployed with low-tech logistics providers too.
UpFront Americas Edition
Adolph Colaco
Delivering what customersyourneed. Port Houston City Docks www.porthouston.com
There is plenty of work to go around! Come join us.
To give another view of the problem, the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported in 2020 that roughly one out of every four transportation workers were over the age of 55. This is admittedly a large bucket of transportationrelated workers, but our sector of logistics and supply chain is represented within it.
16 BREAKBULK MAGAZINE www.breakbulk.com SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022 UpFront Americas Edition
By John Hark
Many companies want to know what they can do to help alleviate the shortage of workers. Fortunately, there are multiple areas for our industry to get involved in to attract and bring in new talent.
and specifically in the Houston region, we have many ways for the community to serve as part of the solution. Houston has 10 area high schools with maritime and logistics programs, as well as multiple regional junior colleges and universities featuring logistics, maritime and supply chain programs. Opportunities and the need exist for companies to participate with advisory councils, speaking engagements, mock interview sessions and career fairs.
As an industry, we’ve been concerned about the growing talent gap for nearly 20 years. Unfortunately up until now, efforts to bring young people into project logistics have been somewhat cyclical in nature. We have expressed concern about the problem, put effort into it, and then various market disruptions occur. Concern then understandably wanes and efforts around recruitment tend to stall out.
internship programs in which firms can participate. At Bertling for instance, we have participated for many years in the Germany apprentice program, and in Sweden we work closely with university logistics programs to support internships for Instudents.theU.S.,
Additionally, the Collective initiative formed in April 2020 affords professionals the chance to personally connect with and guide the next generation coming into the industry.
If you search Talent Gap on the Internet, you will find that just about every sector of the economy is dealing with this challenge. A recent Internet search I made brought up the issue in IT, energy, medicine, law enforcement, hospitality, education, and of course our world of logistics and supply
Opportunities Abound for Industry Recruitment
Breaking the Talent Gap Cycle
The supply chain disruption of the pandemic once again brought to light the talent gap in logistics and supply chain work. Companies across the country are now struggling to fill open positions. I did a search on LinkedIn this week and came up with a combined 454,000 logistics and supply chain openings in the U.S.
1, 2011, the oldest U.S. Baby Boomers started turning 65. Every day since then and for the next 19 years, about 10,000 more continue to cross that threshold every day. By 2030, when all Baby Boomers will have turned 65, 18 percent of the nation’s population will be at least that age, according to Pew Research Center population projections. This is a big change in the complexion of the U.S. workforce. In 2010, just 13 percent of Americans were aged 65 and older.
ROLES FOR INDUSTRY
For those professionals and companies looking to get more involved in helping to alleviate the logistics talent gap, we hope you will attend the related panel at this year’s Breakbulk Americas. We will be discussing in detail the opportunities available and how to get involved. The panel will feature new recruits, industry veterans and maritime education supporters actively working to ensure the best talent joins the industry to allow it to continue reaching its potential in the future.
Hark will serve on a panel at Breakbulk Americas, Sept. 29, “Talent Gap and Future of Work.” He will also serve on the panel “Graduate Opportunities,” during the Jerry Nagel Education Day earlier on Sept. 29.
Bertling USA, like many of our peers, have participated in and benefited from our involvement with logistics education for almost 20 years. It has been very rewarding.
In Europe for instance, there are still the traditional apprenticeship programs being supported by companies, and various European universities continue to proactively develop
Recent disruptions that come to mind and had an impact were the 2008 financial crisis, the 2014 drop in oil prices and then the pandemic. If we look specifically at the latest disruption with the pandemic, I would say that it hastened the number of people aged 55 and older leaving the workforce with layoffs and packages given out by some companies. All the while, 10,000 Americans continue to turn 65 every day.
John Hark is regional director of Bertling Logistics (USA), and adjunct professor at Texas A&M University.
Register to attend Breakbulk Americas at xpressreg.net/register/BATC0922/landing.asphttps://www.
CAREER PATH
Breakbulk Americas Education Day connects students with industry.
Onchain.Jan.
GEODIS
Laurent Melaine
EeLain Ong has taken over as chief financial officer of international freight transport and logis tics insurer TT Club.
member of the executive com mittee, reporting to andforsalesasGEODISMelaineLombard,Marie-ChristineCEO.joinedin2011keyaccountdirectordistributionexpress,and
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Bolloré Logistics USA
Laurent Melaine has been appointed executive vice president, commer cial marketing for GEODIS. He is a
Port of Salalah
joined the executive committee in 2013. In 2018 he was appointed international sales director.
Highlighting Recent Industry Hires and Promotions
Keld Mosgaard Christensen has been appointed as new CEO of Oman’s Port of Salalah, effective Sept. 1.
www.breakbulk.com BREAKBULK MAGAZINE 17
Christensen started at Maersk in 1997, then worked for ISS A/S and the Dan ish foreign service as Consul General in
In her career,27-yearOnghas held leadership positions within finance, trea sury and tax across multiple jurisdictions globally.
Istanbul. Since 2019 he has been man aging director of APM Terminals Poti in Salalah,Georgia.on the Arabian coast, is one of Oman’s three major deep-sea ports capable of handling industrial-size breakbulk. APM Terminals holds a 30 percent share in the facility.
EeLain Ong
LAISNÉTHOMASCREDIT
Marc Sawaya has been appointed as CEO of Bolloré Logistics USA, reporting directly to Yves Laforgue, CEO of Bolloré Logistics for the Americas.Sawaya has more than 20 years of experience in supply chain man agement, including 10 with CanadaforofheldheLogistics,Bolloréwheresuccessivelythepositionsregionaldirectorcentralregioninandsales director for the Americas.
TT Club
Marc Sawaya
Autonomous Robots Enable Proactive Cleaning
Armach Robotics Goes Micro with Biofouling Control
By proactively cleaning the hull at the microfouling stage, fuel costs and greenhouse gas, or GHG, emissions can be reduced, risk of transport of invasive species is minimized, and aggressive cleaning techniques that can potentially damage the coating are avoided.
The argument to address microfouling is strong, but there have been legitimate barriers that Armach’s solution overcomes, including time to complete an evolution, required support infrastructure and cost. Armach’s Hull Service Robot, or HSR, is a small autonomous system capable of navigating the hull with minimal operator oversight and requiring no industrial infrastructure. This allows a team of one or two operators to deploy multiple HSRs on a hull simultaneously, allowing for cleaning of a vessel in eight to 12 hours without impacting other in-port
drag on the hull. Minimizing this slime-induced drag will aid shipping companies in reaching the IMO’s GHG emissions reduction goals, while simultaneously reducing fuel costs.
Armach Robotics Inc. is delivering a solution to address biofouling at its earliest stages, microfouling, when it is nothing more than slime on the hull. Armach’s use of small autonomous robots enables a solution that is efficient, economical and gentle enough on the coating system to be used frequently, ensuring the fouling never reaches the macrofouling stage.
A recent International Maritime Organization report concluded that a light slime layer on the hull can result in as much as a 15 percent to 20 percent increase in emissions due to increased
There is also international concern over the transport of invasive species via hull fouling. Microfouling is generally of little concern, as it is either pelagic in nature and unable to live in coastal waters, or too immature to recolonize in local environments after removal from the hull. That means a ship leaving port with a clean hull will not present an invasive species threat to the next port.
SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 202218 BREAKBULK MAGAZINE www.breakbulk.com UpFront Americas Edition
By Karl Lander
Karl Lander
Breakbulk Americas Advisory Board recently announced the event’s first call for papers from the industry. Among the entries, the advisory board selected a paper submitted by Armach Robotics’ Karl Lander, director, regulatory compliance for outreach. Lander supplied Breakbulk magazine with an executive summary of the paper, which is published here.
Biofouling is a problem, and the earlier it’s dealt with, the better.
The predominant approaches to biofouling control in use today are targeted towards macrofouling (mature grasses, tubeworms barnacles) either through biocidal control, foul release coatings, or through mechanical removal methods.
Armach’s technology focuses on microfouling. CREDIT: ARMACH
OVERCOMING BARRIERS
Usingoperations.acombination
of an inertial navigation system, doppler velocity logger and feature-based sonar navigation, the HSR can maintain and update its position on the hull with a high degree of accuracy. This accuracy allows the HSR to be programmed to clean specific sections of the hull efficiently, ensuring full coverage with minimal overlap. The HSR collects position referenced, before and after imagery as it cleans, allowing Armach to deliver a post-cleaning report that documents the hull condition with an unprecedented level of Armachdetail.willcontinue to advance the technology to ensure that proactive in-water cleaning via the HSR becomes the choice of vessel operators worldwide.
Armach’s solution uses soft brushes to remove the fouling without damaging the coating system. This helps avoid release of pollutants into the water, and allows the coating system to continue to perform as intended. Further, preventing the appearance of macrofouling eliminates the possibility of the fouling itself harming the coating.
Karl Lander is director, regulatory compliance and outreach for Armach Robotics. He can be reached at klander@ armachrobotics.com
SUSTAINABILITY
Breakbulk Americas’ Jerry Nagel Education Day returns for its 12th year, Sept. 29 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in NamedHouston.forthe
Gartner said organization size and purposeful goal setting has played a role in driving women’s representation in the supply chain. Nearly half of organizations ranging from US$100 million to US$5 billion have no objectives to increase women leaders. However, 83 percent of the largest corporations (US$5 billion or more) have stated objectives to improve women in leadership roles, and 38 percent have incorporated formal targets that are reflected on management scorecards.
average North American supply chain organization, up from 15 percent in 2021. However, women in VP-level roles decreased to 21 percent, from 23 percent last year. While women represent 39 percent of the total supply chain workforce, compared to 14 percent in 2021.
“Global organizations have better pipelines and better representation of women, underrepresented races and ethnicities,” Chumakov said.
Education Day Nurtures Next Generation
Breakbulk’s Women in Breakbulk is serving a leading role in engaging industry women to drive further inclusion and to bring awareness to industry leaders to enact change.
WOMEN IN BREAKBULK / EDUCATION DAY
Education Day sessions include a welcome breakfast, a panel on “Empowering the Next Generation of Breakbulk Professional,” a breakbulk project case study and “Graduate Opportunities.” Following the sessions, students will tour the exhibition floor led by members of the Houston-based U.S.
Exporters Competitive Maritime Council. ECMC comprises senior executives of leading engineering, procurement and construction firms; industrial manufacturers; and project Theforwarders.guided
tour covers five exhibitor booths representing different sectors of the business: carriers, ports and terminals, freight forwarders, and other marine goods and services.
SUPPLY CHAIN LEADERSHIP
The Women in Breakbulk Breakfast features conversations with key female figures in leadership positions, offering insightful tips and advice for women from all corners of the industry on how they too can climb the ranks and change the narrative.
Join the Women in Breakbulk networking group by filling out and submitting the form at https://breakbulk.com/page/ women-in-breakbulk
Approved students attend this event for free. Interested students should check with their educators to be added to their school lists. Students are allowed only as a group from a posted institution. Non-students pay $300 as an add-on registration. Register at https://xpressreg.net/register/ BATC0921/landing.asp
late industry veteran who led efforts to build the program that nurtures industry next generations, Education Day introduces the project cargo and breakbulk industry to those considering a career in one of the most challenging sectors of transportation and logistics.
In a report released in May by Gartner Inc. and AWESOME, in 2022 women account for 19 percent of C-level positions in an
According to respondents to the Women in Supply Chain survey, lack of career advancement opportunities is the key reason midcareer women are leaving the industry, followed by seeking greater or more competitive compensation.
Starting with Breakbulk Europe in Rotterdam in May, the Women in Breakbulk event is held away from the exhibition floor. The Houston breakfast, sponsored by dship will be held at the Marriott Marquis – River Oaks Ballroom, third floor, at 9:30 to 10:45 a.m. The breakfast is free, but space is limited.
www.breakbulk.com BREAKBULK MAGAZINE 19
Building on last year’s success, Women in Breakbulk brings together women from different sectors to share their perspectives on building a successful career in the maritime, project cargo and breakbulk industry.
Women in Breakbulk Breakfast Returns to Houston
“This survey suggests that [chief supply chain officers] will need to double-down on goal setting, leadership inclusion and career-pathing for women,” said Caroline Chumakov, senior principal analyst with the Gartner Supply Chain practice.
Women in Breakbulk brings together women from different sectors
Growing Initiative Drives Further Industry Inclusion
In its expanding program, Breakbulk Events and Media’s Women in Breakbulk returns to Houston with a breakfast prior to the start of Breakbulk Americas, on Sept. 28 in Houston.
Provides Industry-led Sessions, Guided Tours for Students
BREAKBULK GLOBAL SHIPPERS NETWORK UpFront Americas Edition Exclusive Shippers Group Resumes Thought Leadership Series 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 13 – 14 February 2023 Dubai World Trade Centre, Dubai, middleeast.breakbulk.comUAE 26 - 28 September 2023 George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston, americas.breakbulk.comUSA 6 - 8 June 2023 Rotterdam Ahoy, europe.breakbulk.comNetherlandsRotterdam, Ben Law
Following on from a successful show at Breakbulk Europe 2022 in Rotterdam last May, the lounge at Houston will host representatives from a variety of shippers, cargo
20
Breakbulk Global Shippers Network, or BGSN, a global network of shippers in the engineering, manufacturing and production of industrial projects and project cargo, returns to Breakbulk Americas Sept. 27-29 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, one year after its successful launch at the 2021 Americas event.
Through the event, the BGSN lounge will host daily “break fast briefings” and “lunch and learn” sessions. The lounge will also host welcome drinks during the Welcome Recep tion Sept. 27, as well as daily happy hours on Sept. 28 and 29.
manufacturing and aerospace. Members enjoy free passes
Breakbulk Americas thought leadership topics in the lounge will include fair and balanced logistics contracts, the rise of renewables, and investment in the complex logistics tech market.
The BGSN Lounge at Breakbulk Americas, sponsored by e2log and located prominently on the exhibit hall floor, enables members to meet face-to-face with colleagues, current suppliers and business partners, keep up with market trends and source new supply chain partners.
BGSN Expands Program for Breakbulk Americas
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
TRUCK DRIVER’S SON
While Ratzenberger’s acting career began in the early 1970s, the truck driver’s son helped pay the bills by working as a house framer, archery instructor and deck hand on a fishing boat. So it’s no surprise that later in his career he began promoting the importance of manufacturing and trades.
Driving Toward a Manufacturing Renaissance EVENT UPDATE
Since climbing off the barstool at Cheers over a decade ago, John Ratzenberger has become Hollywood’s most outspoken advocate for manufacturing, skilled labor and the companies that are the foundation of the U.S., detailing the crushing regulations on American enterprise and the fact that the U.S. is running out of skilled tradesman to fill the hundreds of thousands of available skilled trades jobs in America.
John Ratzenberger
Cheers Star Ratzenberger to Speak at Breakbulk Americas
An author, entrepreneur, philanthropist and activist – all while remaining true to his blue-collar roots – Ratzenberger will be Breakbulk America’s keynote speaker, Thursday, Sept. 29 on the Main RatzenbergerStage.will participate in a meet and greet for Breakbulk Global Shipper Network members Thursday, Sept. 28 in the BGSN Lounge, Booth R11.
He has written several books, including We’ve Got it Made in America, A Common Man’s Salute to an Uncommon Country, a collection of essays from his travels to factory towns on the Travel Channel show John Ratzenberger’s Made in America
He has worked with Congress to bring back trades training in schools, build apprenticeship programs for veterans and support reshoring of U.S. companies. In 2017 he was appointed to the President’s Task Force on Apprenticeship Expansion.
Following his keynote address, Ratzenberger will also take part in an exclusive meet and greet with delegates, with morning cocktails and light snacks in a ‘Cheers bar’ setting. Cost for the special event is US$30 per person, and may be added to passes as an add-on item in registration, at xpressreg.net/register/BATC0922/landing.asphttps://www.
demand have been.”
than might freyeconomisttionAdministraInformationU.S.anticipated,”beEnergyindustryJefBarrontold
At the Port of Beaumont in Southeast Texas, project cargo is moved from oceangoing vessel to barge for the final leg of transport to a liquefaction facility construction site.
overs of energy-related project cargoes might just have to curb their enthusiasm in this extremely volatile time for the U.S. oil and gas Record-highmarket.oil and gas prices are not yet translating to commensurate widespread increases in energy infra structure investments, according to industry observers, but outlays for liquefied natural gas and renewable fuel facilities do continue to rise, particularly in Texas.
ENERGY UPDATE
EIA
CREDIT: BEAUMONT
BY PAUL SCOTT ABBOTT
Breakbulk .
“It’s still grow ing, but it is less than one would highconsideringexpecthowpricesand
22 BREAKBULK MAGAZINE www.breakbulk.com SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022
ENTHUSIASMCURBED
Jeffrey Barron
Energy Industry Investments Lag High Gas Prices
PORT OF
M
Barron, who produces the ShortTerm Energy Outlook reports for EIA – the statistical and analytical agency within the U.S. Department of Energy – said a host of factors are contributing to uncertainties that have combined to make this “probably one of the most hard-toforecast times for the oil and gas market for coming months, let alone years.”Whereas oil markets are volatile “almost all the time,” according to Barron, “this is one of the most chal lenging and volatile times for the oil and gas market.”
“Capital investment by the oil and gas industry is at a slower rate
shale oil and gas production, and getting that production to markets, both domestically and via export, he explained.“Asthe price of oil dropped, some of that infrastructure went under utilized,” Gilliam said. “Now, as the price of oil is at a steady increase, the first step for many will be to maximize utilization of those already estab lished investments before they start to speculate on additional investment in production or capabilities.”
Nonetheless, Barron said, big oil companies have been hesitant to effusively pour newfound gains into infrastructure. Although some smaller private companies have been adding drilling rigs at an expected rate, he said, publically traded explo ration concerns seem to be taking “a more balanced approach” as, rather than putting most of their profits into expanding capacities and capabilities, they are more substantially engaging in such activities as increasing divi dends to shareholders, buying back shares on the open market and paying down“So,”debt.Barron said, “we’re seeing slower growth in rig counts and activ ity than might be expected.”
Crowley Shipping
“With the increase in crude and gas prices, energy companies appear to initially be attempting to maximize the utilization of infrastructure and facili ties they developed associated with the fracking boom,” Gilliam said.
ENERGY UPDATE
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FOCUS SHIFTS ‘GREENER’ Gilliam and colleague Matt Jackson, vice president of business development for Crowley Shipping and Energy, are seeing the U.S. energy industry increasingly transition its emphasis to “greener” fuels, includ ing LNG, which have lower carbon emissions levels than traditional fuels. This trend is likely to be accelerated by climate change initiatives advanced in July by U.S. President Joe Biden, as well as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, with US$375 billion designated for efforts to fight climate change, signed into law Aug. 16.
Tucker Gilliam
“The downstream opportunities to produce and transport LNG have increased to help meet the increased demand worldwide,” Jackson said, noting that Crowley is heavily engaged with LNG, including this year opening a new LNG loading facility in Puerto Rico and partnering with Shell North America to build the largest U.S. LNG bunker barge.
BIG OIL SLOW TO INVEST
Matt Jackson
Jackson added that a shortage of storage and lack of supply due to demand have resulted in building of additional large-scale LNG liquefiers along with new LNG contracts to sup port these investments.
What upstream activity growth there will be is anticipated to largely occur in the Permian Basin region of West Texas and southeastern New Mexico, according to Barron, with lesser growth in the Eagle Ford shale play to the east of the Permian Basin; the Bakken Formation extending from Montana and North Dakota into Canada; the Niobrara region of northeastern Colorado and neighbor ing states; and the Anadarko Basin of western Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle.Barron’s tempered view is sup ported by executives of Jacksonville, Florida-based vessel operator and sup ply chain logistics provider Crowley Maritime.“While we are seeing increased demand and consumption of refined products, we are not seeing a cor responding increase in upstream activity yet that would in turn drive breakbulk- and project-related activ ity, though it doesn’t mean it is not happening,” Tucker Gilliam, Crowley Shipping’s vice president of marine assets, told Breakbulk
According to the EIA’s ShortTerm Energy Outlook report released July 12, sustained high demand supports a U.S. crude oil production forecast of an average of 11.9 million barrels per day in 2022, rising in 2023 to 12.8 million barrels a day, which would eclipse the record of 12.3 million barrels a day set in 2019.Meanwhile, the report projects that per-gallon U.S. regular gasoline prices, which averaged US$4.11 in the first half of 2022, up from US$2.78 in the first half of 2021, will end this year at an average of US$4.05 before declining to US$3.57 in 2023.
The Covid-19 pandemic contin ues to cast a pall, while supply side questions abound following Russia’s Ukraine invasion, unrest in Libya and uncertainty regarding sanctions on Iran and Venezuela, Barron said. On the demand front, inflation and the overall U.S. economic slowdown are among significant factors.
Supply chain challenges, led by inability to get steel, have also lim ited the wherewithal of companies to increase rig counts, he said, add ing that many of the older rigs that could have been called upon now to boost upstream production were cannibalized for parts throughout Covid-wracked 2020.
During the fracking boom of the 2010s, companies made significant investments in production and logis tics capabilities, mainly consolidation facilities, pipelines and receiving and export terminals associated with
Crowley Shipping
“We do see investment in infra structure associated with alternative or lower carbon fuels as focus contin ues for consumers and corporations steadily shifts toward decarbonization and sustainability,” Gilliam said.
An April report from Dallasbased commercial real estate services and investment firm CBRE, while focused on real estate, cites the
Numerous additional facility development projects are in various stages of pursuit in the Golden Trian gle, including the nearly US$5 billion plan to add a lumber-waste-to-fuels renewable fuels plant and nitrogenbased fertilizer production units by 2027 at the existing OCI Beaumont ammonia and methanol plant, owned and operated by Amsterdam-based OCI N.V., just south of Beaumont.
SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 202224 BREAKBULK MAGAZINE www.breakbulk.com
ENERGY UPDATE
opportunity for the U.S. LNG industry to help offset reductions in European imports of natural gas from Russia while also meeting burgeoning domes tic demand.Nowhere in the U.S. is the LNG boom having greater impact than in the Golden Triangle region, centered around the Southeast Texas cities of Beaumont, Port Arthur and Orange, with the Sabine-Neches Waterway as its main maritime artery.
“Oftentimes, the largest compo nents are shipped in, moved to barge and sent back downriver to offload closer to the facility.”
In Orange, Texas, a joint venture of Chevron Phillips and Qatar Petro leum has begun clearing land for the proposed US$8 billion CP Chem facility, to include an ethane cracker and high-density polyethylene plants.
Project cargo destined for the Diamond Green Diesel construction site is transferred from ship to barge at the Port of Port Arthur in East Texas near the Louisiana border.
Buoyed by significant foreign investment, more than US$65 billion in announced and proposed oil, gas and petrochemical industry projects are in the metaphorical pipeline in the Golden Triangle region, according to Chick.With Qatar Energy and Exxon Mobil as partners, the US$10 billion Golden Pass LNG liquefaction and export terminal facility in Sabine Pass, Texas, is under construction, on target to start up the first of three planned LNG production trains in 2024. The engineering, procurement and construction contractor is the CCZJV joint venture of San Anto nio-headquartered Zachry Group, Houston-based McDermott Inter national and a unit of Japan-based Chiyoda Corp. In April, the facility received U.S. Department of Energy authorization to export as many as 18.1 million tons per year of LNG to countries that do not have free-trade agreements with the U.S.
CREDIT: PORT OF PORT ARTHUR
MORE FACILITIES ADVANCE
Meanwhile, the US$10 billion Port Arthur LNG liquefaction proj ect is moving closer to fruition, with Bechtel signed as EPC contractor for San Diego-based Sempra Energy. An interim project participation agreement has been signed with a subsidiary of Saudi Aramco, and
“LNG facilities, refineries and chemical plants along the waterway rely on the Port of Beaumont to move the large pieces of cargo that bring their projects to life,” Sadé Chick, the Port of Beaumont’s director of corpo rate affairs, told Breakbulk, pointing out the port’s location at the uncon gested north terminus of the federally maintained shipping channel.
Visit our website or schedule a tour today.
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1.800.362.5743 PortFreeport.com CHANGE CHANNELYOUR See the big picture. It’s time to change your channel.
Big changes are happening here. Freeport Harbor Channel – already the shortest on the Texas Gulf – will soon be the deepest channel in the state. Larger vessels will be moving through our port than ever before and we’ll be ready for them with new berths and modern cranes. Best of all, we have over 500 acres of adjacent land ready for development.
the U.S. Department of Energy has authorized exports to non-free-trade agreement countries. The facility augurs to produce as many as 13.5 mil lion tons of LNG per year.
CREDIT: CHENIERE ENERGY
ENERGY
UPDATE
26 BREAKBULK MAGAZINE www.breakbulk.com SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022
Also in Port Arthur, about 90 miles east of Houston, the Diamond Green Diesel LLC joint venture between Valero and Darling Ingredients earlier this year contracted with Kansas City, Missouri-headquartered Burns & McDonnell to provide EPC services for development of a renewable diesel pro duction facility being built at Valero’s 395,000-barrels-per-day refinery. With
Recent completion of a sixth liquefaction train at Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass LNG terminal further boosts capacity at the Southwest Louisiana facility, across the Sabine-Neches Waterway from the Golden Triangle of Southeast Texas.
UPDATE
Now we’re back
world leading
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channel and put in place a taller har bor bridge with 205-foot clearance. Corpus Christi’s export prominence got its start with the 2015 lifting of the 40-year U.S. embargo on crude oil exports. BB
ENERGY
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the ability to churn out 470 million gal lons of renewable diesel per year, the facility will offer the largest renewable diesel train in the U.S. The Port of Port Arthur is busy handling project cargoes for its “Southeastconstruction.Texas is the go-to location for many of these large industrial projects due to the prox imity to healthy rail, highway and pipeline networks,” the Port of Beaumont’s Chick said.
On the Louisiana side of the Sabine-Neches Waterway, in Cameron Parish, a subsidiary of Houston-based Cheniere Energy and EPC partner Bechtel announced in February the ahead-of-schedule substantial completion of all six liquefaction trains at the Sabine Pass LNG terminal, where initial train production began in 2016. That brings the facility’s total LNG production capacity to 30 million tons a Accordingyear. to executives of Reston, Virginia-headquartered Bechtel, newly added Train 6 alone will make enough energy to retire eight typical coal-fired power plants.Cheniere and Bechtel also are teaming up on a US$5.5 billion expansion of liquefaction capabili ties at the Corpus Christi Stage 3 LNG project on Corpus Christi Bay in San Patricio County, along the Coastal Bend of South Texas, about 200 miles southwest of Houston. In June, Cheniere made a positive financial investment deci sion to move forward with adding as many as seven midscale trains, to bring the US$14 billion termi nal’s total nominal capacity to 25 million tons a year of LNG by the end of Economic2025. development officials report more than US$52 billion in industry investments throughout the Coastal Bend over the past decade, while, to better handle burgeoning export volumes via the Port of Corpus Christi – the nation’s No. 1 export gateway for American crude oil and No. 2 export gateway for LNG – separate endeavors are proceeding to deliver a 54-foot-deep ship
A professional journalist for more than 50 years, U.S.-based Paul Scott Abbott has focused on transportation topics since the late 1980s. years before Columbus, the Vikings landed on the American shores. with spreaders.
Visit us Breakbulkat atSeptemberAmericas27-29standM23 www.elme.com We’re back!
WILDTRUCKING’SUSRIDE Trucking Not Over Yet
RATES RUNNING HIGH
MotorforseeissuesanyheandofmotorrepresentingAssociation,700carriersallshapessizes,saidhasn’tseencapacityyet.“Istilllongwaitsequipment.carriers
U.S. trucking rates are elevated. DAT Freight and Analytics, or DAT, expects record-high spot rates and volumes to continue, according to its 2022 Freight Focus: The Transporta tion Logistics Outlook
SHUTTERSTOCKCREDIT: INLAND TRANSPORTATION
S
upply chains of every type have been stressed nearly to breaking point. U.S. truck ing has seen record-high rates and demand, with capacity short ages in some markets. Motor carriers and their partners continue to try to expand capacity but efforts are being hampered.Whilenavigating through hullabalootheis a challenge, John Esparza, presi dent and CEO of the Texas Truck ing
BY LORI MUSSER
Flatbed freight rates, according to DAT’s July 19 report, averaged US$3.35 per mile, down slightly from June. The rates vary through out the U.S., and were highest in the Southeast, at US$3.68 per mile. That contrasts with the lowest rates in the western states, at US$2.69 per mile.
Texas AssociationTrucking
Similarly, the Cass Transportation Index Report advised that although the trucking industry went through a “soft patch” for shipments in June 2022, the expenditures component of the Cass Freight Index, which measures the total amount spent on freight, rose 8.8 percent month over month. It reached a new record high, with shipments down 2.7 percent and rates up 11.7 percent.
Topsy-Turvy of Pandemic-Era
have more business than drivers and equipment,” he told Breakbulk
Trucks move about 10 billion tons of freight per year in the U.S., about three-quarters of total domes tic tonnage shipped, according to the American Trucking Association, or ATA.There were 37.9 million trucks used for business purposes in the U.S. in 2019. There were almost 4 million Class 8 heavy trucks in operation in 2020, and they traveled more than 300 billion miles and consumed close to 50 billion gallons of fuel, accord ing to MostATA.motor carriers – more than 97 percent – operate fewer than 20 trucks.The U.S. Department of Transpor tation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration reported that, as of February 2021, there were just short of a million for-hire carriers and almost another million private (and “other”) carriers.
John Esparza
28 BREAKBULK MAGAZINE www.breakbulk.com SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022
Overall, expenditure levels were up 25 percent over June 2021 levels. However, Cass reported the rate of increase has been decelerating over the last few months. “We estimate roughly 10 percentage points of the [year-over-year] increase are currently due to fuel prices alone,” reported the June Freight Index release.
Commodity shipments are an off set. For example, the American Iron and Steel Institute, or AISI, reported that during the last week of July 2022, U.S. steel output fell from 1.88 million to 1,73 million net tons, more than 7 percent as compared with the same week in 2021. That equates to a loss of almost 5,000 truckloads of steel per week, and perhaps 50,000 truckloads this year over 2021.
SLOW PRODUCTION
The fuel price issue has hit all carriers heavily but not equally. U.S. diesel rates vary considerably by region. The South Central and South east regions showed the lowest prices on July 18, at US$5.08 and US$5.34 respectively, and California the highest at US$6.52.Looking ahead at expenses, indus try is cautiously optimistic, as usual, according to Esparza. “You have to be that way to go into every day, week, month. The industry doesn’t get too excited when they are making money hand over fist, or when they are suck ing wind at the bottom of the drain,” he said.Nevertheless, motor carrier spend ing behavior has changed. “If they had planned on buying 40 trailers and now see interest rates climbing, they might just invest in their current equipment to make it last another few years. The industry understands how to survive when there is chaos all around.”
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The rise in truckload rates is about to slow, according to the Cass Truckload Linehaul Index. “After an extraordinary truckload rate cycle, the market balance has shifted, with capacity now growing briskly and demand falling, which will limit fur ther upside in the … Index and likely press it lower in the coming months.”
Sean McNally, vice president of public affairs for the ATA, described the two largest expenses for U.S. trucking companies as labor and fuel. “Because of the driver shortage, wages have been steadily going up and fuel prices have hit historic highs this year pushing expenses up,” he said to Breakbulk. On top of that, many other costs associated with trucking (i.e. insurance, tires, parts, truck and equipment) are also rising.
Anderson Trucking Service
UNIQUE MARKETS
INLAND TRANSPORTATION
In Texas, demand for oilfield loads, project cargo and other heavy hauls remains strong. The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, which tracks specialized cargo permits, said that as of the end of July permit issu ances are up incrementally over last fiscalDAT’syear.flatbed rate reports echo the strength of the Texas market.
Then there is the outlook for new capacity. Orders for new Class 8 trucks and tractors in July fell yearover-year, according to ACT Research. Preliminary Class 8 net orders in July were 11,400 units.
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AISI figures reflect regional dis parities, with the most significant reductions in production volume in the Northeast and Great Lakes regions. There was a minor increase in production in the South.
week … remain 39 percent lower than the previous year. Compared with the strong flatbed markets in 2018 and 2020, load post volumes are 6 percent and 4 percent lower, respectively. Flatbed equipment posts remain at record highs for this year and are even 55 percent higher than this time in 2018. As a result, the flatbed loadto-truck ratio decreased by 3 percent to 19.59,” in the last week of July alone. The ratio started the year at close to Similarly,90. the Aug. 3 report said: “Flatbed linehaul rates have dropped by US$0.22/mile year-to-date but US$0.19/mile in just the last nine weeks following last week’s US$0.02/ mile decrease. The flatbed national average spot rate at US$2.46/mile is US$0.23/mile lower [year over year] but still US$0.08/mile higher than this time in 2018. Compared to prior non-pandemic years, flatbed linehaul rates are US$0.46/mile higher.”
One unexpected issue for Texas trucking was summer highway traf fic. Esparza said folks are vacationing again, despite gasoline prices. Road traffic has been particularly heavy. The slower general roadway traffic moves, the slower the commercial trucks move. Longer transits mean more truck capacity is needed to serve the same amount of cargo. This is especially true for out-of-gauge cargo.
When project shipments rise, truck availability may get pinched, but the diversity of the breakbulk and project markets offers protection.
The breakbulk and project cargo markets served by heavy haulers are anticipating new business triggered by the U.S. Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. It offers new and expanded grant programs totaling US$1.2 tril lion for infrastructure projects.
TRUCKING EXPENSES
In its Aug. 3 Flatbed Report , DAT identified a tightening of flatbed capacity in a number of U.S. markets. Flatbed rates were up and capacity down, for example, in the “north to Houston,” California, and “northeast to Salt Lake City” markets. Neverthe less, “flatbed load post volumes last
Taking into consideration a six-month industry-build plan, a
Cari Woitalla
ing on repairs), the cost of living on the road, and the long lead on avail ability of new equipment.
capacity should keep rates in check, especially spot rates.
“We’dtractors.define healthy supplier/ buyer relationships to be inside an 18- to 22- week lead time. We have not seen Class 8 sleeper-tractors in that range for some time. If the first buyer retains a unit for 48-60 months, the re-buy is four or five years. We entered 2020 (Covid-era) with extended pro duction lead times beyond what could be defined as a healthy relationship,” she said.
It hasn’t improved yet. The extended lead times continue. “So for half of the first owner’s expected truck life, we’ve been in high demand/lowered supply of Class 8 sleeper-berth tractors. There are at least three consecutive years of pent-up replacement demand, using the historical cycle,” Woitalla told Breakbulk. She noted that all of ATS’s historical OEM partners have limited build slots, repetitive price increases, surcharges, cancelled or delayed firm orders, equipment offline incomplete, and equipment not built with ATS’s specifications.“Continued huge dollar increases and limited build slots are still in front of us,” Woitalla said.
INLAND TRANSPORTATION
CREDIT: ATS
The global semiconductor sup ply issue is also negatively impacting commercial truck production, but one solution is in the works.
backlog timing analysis, and histori cal data, the weak orders posted in ACT’s monthly State of the Indus try: Classes 5-8 Vehicles report for July might lead industry observers to worry about the end of healthy demand. But, Eric Crawford, ACT’s vice president and senior analyst, reported the Class 8 backlogs stretch into 2023, that some supply-chain issues will continue, and that infla tionary cost pressures aren’t pushing OEMs to open order books for 2023.
U.S. truck availability has just started to improve for new or near-new Class 8 semi-tractors.
“In light of this confluence of factors, plus typically challenged seasonality in Q3, we hesitate to extrapolate too much from a data point that could prove to be an outlier. To be sure, though, it is a datapoint that warrants increased vigilance going forward,” Crawford said in ACT’s Aug. 2 statement on July orders. Continued tight truck
SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 202230 BREAKBULK MAGAZINE www.breakbulk.com
U.S. truck availability has just begun to improve for new or near-new Class 8 semi-tractors, ATS’s Woitalla said.ATS typically uses Class 8 sleepertractors. Woitalla said the industry is still a long way from having a comfort able level of availability across all ages and classes of on-highway sleeperberth
“From our perspective, we believe that some capacity may be coming
TRANSPORTATION
“Because of the driver shortage, wages have been steadily going up and fuel prices have hit historic highs this year pushing expenses up.”
Esparza added: “If we are in a glut, it is a soft one. The [cargo] numbers from our ports and border crossings are strong. A lot of freight moves through Texas. We can count on the thirst for freight to continue. How we respond is what I worry about the most. The driver shortage is still a problem. We don’t have enough people in the work force. Generations of folks are Ifretiring.”higher-than-normal rates have attracted more trucking capacity to any sector of the market, recent order production issues may be a lucky break. When there is too much capac ity, carriers go bankrupt. Trucking industry economics that help cargo arrive in good shape, on time, and on budget, is what shippers and project developers want. Economics are the challenge today, keeping planners on their toes as the markets continue their wild ride. BB
– Sean McNally
extensive impact on capacity and rates.
Corsi also said that as we look to the future, the diversification of equip ment with driverless trucks, EVs and other innovations may have a more
out of the industry as the spot market softens and returns to a pre-pandemic level with contract freight, which may hurt some smaller and independent fleets (particularly with elevated costs for equipment, fuel and drivers),” ATA’s McNally said to Breakbulk.
Given the vagaries of production, loads available, supply chain disrup tions, trucking capacity by type, and rate fluctuations, industry analysts are doing well to separate the wheat from the chaff and see a path forward.
The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives passed the CHIPS Act of 2022. It is a US$280 million bid to boost domestic semiconductor manu facturing. Key to the plan is US$53 billion in new subsidies for U.S. com puter chip manufacturing, and a 25 percent tax credit for semiconductor manufacturing.TheATAwas delighted. “Semi conductors and computer chips make our economy and industry run – right down to the trucks we drive – and we have seen the consequences of decades of neglecting domestic manufacturing of these critical components,” said Bill Sullivan, ATA executive vice president for advocacy.
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INLAND
CAPACITY GLUT OR SHORTFALL
Woitalla said, with active equip ment aging out, industry developments like the discontinuation of one of Freightliner’s big-haul models, and new tractor lead times being longer than in the past, capacity issues are likely to be shortfalls.Thomas Corsi, professor at Uni versity of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, said, when asked if record rates could spark a capacity glut, that he has seen some softening in rates, but: “I wouldn’t think this environ ment will lead companies to make an over-investment in capacity.” In fact, he anticipates slower growth in the market going forward, and for the driver short age to continue for some time.
Based in the U.S., Lori Musser is a veteran shipping industry writer.
ATS said the industry is still a long way from having a comfortable level of availability across all ages and classes of on-highway sleeper berth tractors. CREDIT: ATS
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SETTING EMISSIONSANBASELINE
COMPLIANCE
Rules for compliance vary with some countries already mandating Scope 3 emissions reporting for large and listed companies and others work ing towards that. But the tide is clearly flowing in one direction and the advice is to get familiar with Scope 3 reporting as soon as possible.
ESTABLISHING A BASELINE
Rik Arends, program director at the Centre and participant in the Break bulk-hosted think-tank, explained the importance of establishing a baseline – a single or industry methodology – on how to calculate and report greenhouse gas emissions from breakbulk logistics operations.
focused on the challenge of Scope 3 reporting for engineering, procure ment and construction companies. With representatives from throughout the supply chain, the kick-off meeting at Breakbulk Europe considered the anticipated requirements from a client perspective. EPCs will need to collect emissions reporting information from material suppliers and transportation companies – whether they are moving materials directly for the EPC, mov ing it for the supplier or part of a joint venture arrangement on the project. Everything that goes into a project will need to be reported. This is a reporting initiative that needs to be driven by the carriers and facilitated by forwarders and shippers.
“The big question here is the gen eral denominator. It has always been weight and distance, which doesn’t necessarily work for the breakbulk industry. And there are technical ques tions that have to be solved.”
Facilitating a Standardized Reporting Process for Breakbulk
“This might be perceived as super complex, but in reality it’s not and you don’t need as high a level of precision as you might expect – more data is not always better,” Arends said. Compa nies striving for perfection from day
Smart Freight Centre, or SFN, an international non-profit organization focused on reducing greenhouse gas emission from freight transportation, successfully facilitated an emissions reporting standard for the container industry. SFN was integral to the cre ation of the Global Logistics Emissions Council, or GLEC, in 2014. GLEC has since grown into a voluntary partnership of more than 150 compa nies, industry associations, programs, experts and other organizations focused on driving emission reduction and enhancing efficiency across global logistics supply chains.
34 BREAKBULK MAGAZINE www.breakbulk.com SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022
According to Deloitte, for many businesses, Scope 3 emissions account for more than 70 percent of their car bon footprint. It gives the example of an organization that manufactures products, where there will often be significant carbon emissions from the extraction, manufacture and processing of the raw materials that would need to be reported under Scope 3.
As an industry-centered network ing collective, Breakbulk Events and Media this year hosted a think-tank
reakbulk and project cargo movers are likely already familiar with the emission reporting requirements of the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol Stan dard. The Protocol – the most widely used international emissions account ing tool – introduced to companies the concept of direct and indirect emissions reporting.Scope1 and 2 reporting is now standard, with the former covering direct emissions from owned or con trolled sources and the latter covering indirect emissions from the generation of purchased electricity, steam, heating and cooling consumed by the reporting company.However the last ‘Scope’ is caus ing consternation among breakbulk and project cargo movers. Scope 3 includes all other indirect emissions not included in Scope 2 that occur in a company’s value chain.
Arends stressed that reporting emis sions from the breakbulk industry does not need to be onerous on forwarders and carriers. Many, he said, are already making these calculations to under stand and report on their own carbon footprint. Others know that they need to start reporting soon.
B
“We know about a quarter of organizations are able to report GHG emissions to customers. And about just over half of the organizations are able to calculate emissions for themselves. We know that there are certain com panies that are super advanced, but also companies that are quite behind. Generally speaking, someone needs to take ownership of emissions reporting within an organization to get it right.
Whereas the GLEC framework is now well-established, the break bulk industry is only at the start of its decarbonization journey. In Arends’ view, this late start should be viewed positively: “Breakbulk can learn from other sectors, and from what can be done. There’s a lot of excess knowledge already about like how can we decar bonize and how to calculate and report so let’s make sure that we agree on those assets together, because the last thing you want is one company calcu lating differently to the others.
BY CARLY FIELDS
www.breakbulk.com BREAKBULK MAGAZINE 35 COMPLIANCE
What’s now needed from the breakbulk industry to move towards the end goal of standardized emissions reporting? The first step is a commit ment from the industry, Arends said. The Breakbulk Europe kick-off meeting implicitly implied that was there, he said. Then there needs to be agreement reached by the end of the year through a series of workshops on the methodol ogy and the establishment of a series
way happening,” he said.
There are two aspects to this: one is an agreement that everyone does the same regarding data collection. The second is how businesses exchange that information. While some organizations are transparent and fine to share data, others may not be. “We need mutual dependency,” Arends said. An alterna tive method would be to share relevant data through an intermediary, such as SFN.Then, a roadmap would need to be created on the governance of the pro posed model. “Are we aiming to go for a complete clean cargo model or are we solving this on a more bilateral basis with the organizations? I can see either
In terms of timings, as a compa rable, the GLEC framework took three years to be finalized. A similar reporting methodology for the chemical sector – recently completed by SFN –took about five months. This included time for piloting and testing and con sensus
CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK
Generic caption.
of default value calculations to allow a reasonable calculation to be made for a set category of vessel. “Then, let’s see if we can come to a reporting cycle where operators are calculating on an annual basis to their customers,” he said.
Thisbuilding.givesparameters for the break bulk industry to work to, but ultimately it will be down to the industry to propel this forward. “Engagement from indus try is critical for the standards-setting initiative to work,” Arends stressed. “The main message is not to make things very complex.” BB
NEXT STEPS FOR BREAKBULK
Carly Fields has reported on the shipping industry for the past 21 years, covering bunkers and broking and much in between.
one could well be disappointed. “With reasonable average industry numbers you can make a decent, informed deci sion on your decarbonization options. For example, how quick to load your vessel, or whether you need to change modes of transport. You don’t need very high-quality granular data to make some decisions.
Measuring Scope 3 Emissions in the Breakbulk Industry Industry Alignment a Priority
BY STEPHEN “SPO” SPOLJARIC
P
THOUGHT LEADER
In many countries, reporting and disclosing emissions data is becoming a requirement rather than an option due to a growing focus on energy transition. Likewise, public companies’ emissions data has become an investment decision directly affecting the makeup of their boardrooms, similar to other financial information provided to sharehold ers. And as companies’ emissions data becomes increasingly important, major accounting firms will start to perform audits to ensure accurate reporting of carbonHowever,footprints.tovalidate an audit, there needs to be an established baseline. Without one, auditors will be forced to depend on arbitrary perspectives that will ultimately establish variation, leading to inconsistencies between com panies.While some modes of transporta tion, such as containers, have adopted measures for emissions reporting and created a baseline, emissions data within the breakbulk sector remains opaque since it lacks a published stan dard or guideline on how to record data consistently across carriers and ship
Spoljaric will be moderating the Sept. 27 Executive Summit, which will cover this topic for select industry officials, at Breakbulk Americas, Sept. 27-29 at the George R. Brown Convention Center. BBC Chartering is sponsoring the Executive Summit.
Reaching alignment on these top ics is a priority for the industry. Once we create a baseline for recording and reporting emissions that stands up in an audit, then we can accelerate the inno vation and technology that will provide true emissions reductions that can be measured. This is our challenge and responsibility. BB
pers.Before it can begin tracking its emissions, the breakbulk industry has
a conundrum to solve related to stan dard guidelines accepted across the industry. One may expect that if a ship is completely chartered, the algorithm for calculating the emissions will be straightforward. But if a ship is only partially chartered, how is respon sibility for that portion of the ship assigned—by the value of the goods, weight, volume or something else? If the ship deviates to additional ports as part of a non-liner service outside of typical geographical rotation, is the cargo owner responsible for the addi tional fuel consumption that increases the carbon footprint of that voyage? What if another shipper on the same voyage cargo requests a last-in, first-out option at a higher sailing speed? What is the additional carbon responsibility between the two shippers? Will they be given an option to select alterna tive marine fuels on some routes—at a potential premium cost?
36 BREAKBULK MAGAZINE www.breakbulk.com SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022
Stephen “Spo” Spoljaric is the manager of global logistics for Bechtel, focusing on collaborative and Engineered Logistics™. He was appointed by the U.S. Secre tary of Transportation to the Maritime Transportation System National Advisory Committee, serves as president of the U.S. Exporters Competitive Maritime Council and on the Breakbulk Americas Advisory Board.
eter Drucker, one of history’s most influential thinkers on modern business, said: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” The breakbulk industry would be wise to take this statement as a guiding principle, given the mounting attention on the reduction of Scope 3 emissions in the transport sector.
CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK
“Emissions data within the breakbulk sector remains opaque since it lacks a published standard or guideline on how to record data consistently across carriers and shippers.”
In a region renowned for its mas sive hydropower capacity, the project pipeline is now being led by offshore wind, with Pietro Ferreira, senior regional analyst for the Americas
dominate the land scape, with 745 utility-scale clean
Colombia’s second utility-scale farm, the 20-MW Guajira I, was brought online in January by private utility Isagen.
CREDIT: MAMMOET
More Than US$1 Trillion to be Invested by 2030 BY SIMON WEST
I
According to the Energy Industries Council, the UK’s largest energy sup ply chain trade association, 1,287 energy projects across all sectors are slated to start up by 2030, a construc tion drive calling for US$1.07 trillion in capital expenditure by the end of the Renewablesdecade.
n a bid to capitalize on abundant natural resources, lure muchneeded investment and meet climate goals, countries in South America are diversifying their energy sources, with breakbulk and project cargo looking forward to a surge in cargo-carrying opportunities in sec tors such as renewables, nuclear and carbon capture.
REGIONAL REVIEW
38 BREAKBULK MAGAZINE www.breakbulk.com SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022
BONANZAPROJECTENERGYAMERICA’SSOUTH
power projects – or 58 percent of total energy projects – expected to come online by 2030. Capex in the sector will reach US$612 billion, or 57 per cent of total expenditure, the EIC said.
CHILE’S POST-COAL WORLD
focus instead on building green energy generation, giving fresh impetus to an industry already in the ascendency. Some 16 projects boasting a com bined 2.5 GW of capacity are being developed in the arid, northernmost department of La Guajira, where the winds that whistle through the giant cardon cactuses reach speeds at twice the global Colombia’saverage.second utility-scale farm, the 20-MW Guajira I, was brought online in January by private utility Isagen with an investment of US$20 million. Other companies active in La Guajira include Colom bia’s Celsia, Italy’s Enel Green Power and US-based AES.
CONSULTATIONS CAUSE DELAY
In Brazil, work is about to restart on the long-delayed Angra 3 nuclear power project in the state of Rio de Janeiro.Theproject has suffered numerous setbacks since plans were first drawn up four decades ago to build a third reactor at Angra dos Reis. Construc tion work was stopped in 2010 due to
“Both countries have already attracted major developers, with proj ects in the licensing stage,” Ferreira told Breakbulk. “This is particularly exciting as the offshore wind market provides diversification opportuni ties for the oil and gas supply chain, including players in the logistics indus try.”In Brazil alone, a mammoth 169 gigawatts, or GW, of capacity has entered the project pipeline.
megawatts, or MW, of power gener ated from wind, solar and other clean sources.According to Ferreira, the Atacama Desert in the north of the country boasts one of the highest irradiation levels in the world, lending the country a huge competitive edge for large-scale photovoltaic, or PV, development.
www.breakbulk.com BREAKBULK MAGAZINE 39 REGIONAL REVIEW
Brazil’s onshore wind energy industry is already one of the fastest growing in the world – some 9,250 wind turbines with a combined installed capacity of more than 22 GW are up and running across 12 states. About 80 percent of Brazil’s 812 wind farms are located in the country’s northeast, a region blessed with nearperfect conditions for powering giant turbines.Capacity in South America’s larg est economy is expected to rise to 37 GW by 2026, according to wind energy association ABEeolica.
a lack of finance, then again in 2016 amid a corruption scandal.
Nuclear energy was given a recent boost at COP26 after members rec ognized its crucial role in the pathway towards net-zero. Brazil and Argentina are the key markets in South America, with four reactor projects slated to come online by 2030.
Brazil’s nuclear utility Eletronuclear said the 1.4-gigawatt plant is 65 per centArgentinacomplete.has plans for the con struction of additional reactors at the Atucha complex in a partnership with China, but the country’s current economic problems pose a challenge to its nuclear ambitions, the Energy Industries Council’s Pietro Ferreira said.The EIC expects nearly US$19 billion to be invested in nuclear devel opment region-wide by 2030.
at the EIC, pinpointing Brazil and Colombia with the most potential.
“With the new government and the voting, many investors seem to be wait ing to see what happens,” said Rodrigo Izquierdo, deputy general manager at Santiago-based Integral Chile.
NUCLEAR PROJECT GAINS ANTICIPATED
Ferreira pointed to strong policies in Brazil that are supporting the build out, such as frequent renewable energy auctions and mandates, and public financing from Brazil’s development bank, the BNDES.
Projects such as the 480-MW CEME1, billed as the largest solar PV park in Latin America, cement Chile’s status as a global renewable energy powerhouse. Slated to come online in 2023, CEME1 calls for the instal lation of 860,000 solar panels across more than 400 acres of scorching Ata camaChileans,wilderness.meanwhile, in Septem ber will get the chance to vote on a new constitution, with the future of infrastructure and power industries at stake. One executive speaking to Breakbulk said the country was in “standby” until the results of the plebiscite are known.
Chile, meanwhile, one the region’s green pioneers, is looking to gener ate 70 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2030, a target that calls for plenty of construction work as the nation phases out its coal-fired power stations.President Gabriel Boric, who took office in March, has made energy transition a top priority, pledging to toughen regulations governing fos sil fuels and mining and install 500
Developers include established oil majors such as Shell, who earlier this year announced it had applied for a license from Brazil’s environmental agency Ibama for six offshore wind plants with a total installed capacity of 17 GW. Environmental studies are expected to begin this year.
The industry, though, has faced some challenges, with sources pointing to the often-protracted public consul tations that developers carry out with tribal communities whose lands are located close to proposed installation sites.Luis Carvajal, general manager at Mammoet Colombia, the heavy-lift specialist that supported the installa tion of Guajira I’s 10 Vesta turbines, also flagged connectivity issues between La Guajira and the country’s electric grid, although new power lines being built would facilitate the devel opment of new projects.
Colombia has also been busy expanding its onshore wind and solar capacity.Center-left President Gustavo Petro took office in August with a pledge to ban new fossil fuel projects and
Brazilian chemical maker Unigel, for example, in July revealed plans to install an integrated green hydrogen and green ammonia plant at the Camacari industrial complex in the northeastern state of Bahia with an investment of US$120 million.
“As the region’s ubiquitous hydro power plants become increasingly less effective as a result of climate change, the deployment of combined cycle power plants for baseload genera tion has been seen as go-to options to guarantee energy security,” the analyst said.
Brazil, again, leads the pack, with projects booming at its pre-salt prov ince off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. State-controlled Petrobras is the domi nant force in the development of the reserves – so-called because they are buried beneath thick sheets of salt.
Oil and gas, meanwhile, still has a key role in the South American energy matrix, the EIC said, with the sector expected to commit US$316 billion in capex through to 2030. Exploration and production, pipeline, refinery and LNG ventures constitute 21 percent of total energy initiatives, with 266 proj ects starting up by 2030.
STILL A PLACE FOR O&G
“South America is today one of the leading regions in terms of capex announcement for green hydrogen projects, with Brazil and Chile concen trating the highest number of projects as well as investment,” Energy Indus tries Council’s Pietro Ferreira said.
Plans are in place to expand Boliv ia’s largest wind farm, the 54-MW El Dorado project, by a further 54 MW, part of wider efforts to have more than 2 GW of installed renewable capacity online by 2030, the country’s energy ministry said.
There is rising demand for logistics support for the energy transition in South America. CREDIT: FOX BRASIL
REGIONAL REVIEW
in the continent, coun tries such as Peru and Uruguay are also targeting significant renewable buildout in the coming years, while in Bolivia, three utility-scale wind farms with a combined capacity of 108 MW were brought online last year, with state power firm ENDE in the process of launching tenders for others.
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“We expect the new government to follow the plan of the previous government – encouraging and pro moting the use of renewable energy and pushing to overcome regulatory obstacles,” the Bogotá-based execu tiveElsewheresaid.
The plant, with expected start-up at the end of 2023, would be the largest of its kind in the world, Unigel said.
PROJECT HOPES PEGGED ON HYDROGEN
Beyond renewables, Ferreira also pointed to the market potential of gas-firedAccordinggeneration.toEIC projections, 210 conventional power projects are slated to begin operations by 2030, or 16 percent of the total project pipe line. The construction drive will call for capex of nearly US$62 billion.
“Players such as Enegix, Fortescue, MMEX Resources, AES, Iberdrola, Qair and various others have already sig naled plans to invest in pilot projects as well as large-scale green hydrogen developments. On top of that, coun tries all over the region are creating hydrogen roadmaps and drafting improvements to legislation in order to unlock investment.”
Opportunities in South America lie in hydrogen, with the scaling up of elec trolyzers and other heavy components requiring significant breakbulk support, and carbon capture, a form of emis sions reduction technology increasingly prevalent in power plants and industrial facilities.These so-called energy transition sectors will see almost US$71 billion in capex by the end of the decade, according to EIC data, with 62 projects primed to start up in the coming years.
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With estimated recoverable resources of 11 million barrels of oil equivalent, or boe, opportunities for breakbulk and project cargo are massive. “Additional phases will follow up, with potential for up to 10 FPSOs at the Stabroek block,” Energy Industry Council’s Pietro Fer reiraJedsaid.Bailey, managing director at Energy Narrative, added that Guy ana is on track to hit production of 1 million b/d by 2030, with a growing
CREDIT: MAMMOET
Elsewhere, ongoing development of Argentina’s giant Vaca Muerta shale oil and gas field in northern Patagonia could double crude production to 1 million b/d by 2026, with the govern ment recently launching a tender for the construction of 563-kilometer natural gas pipeline that would expand capacity of the country’s gas network by 25 percent.
REGIONAL REVIEW
Murilo Caldana, project director at Sao Paulo-based freight forwarder FOX Brasil, also pointed to rising demand for logistics support for the construction and transport of the FPSO
Accordingvessels. to Jed Bailey, managing director at Energy Narrative, the long lead time to bring projects online and their 20-25-year operating lives mean current crude prices will have little impact on companies’ investment decisions.“Thehigh oil prices may allow companies to move more quickly with their drilling plans as capital budgets relax, but the final decision to invest in a major production program will be more influenced by expectations for oil demand in 2030 than by oil prices today,” he said. BB
ExxonMobil in July announced two more oil discoveries at the 6.6 million-acre Stabroek Block, taking the U.S. energy producer’s total num ber of finds at the prolific reservoir to more than 25 in under a decade.
roster of international oil companies actively exploring and producing.
See ‘TechnipFMC Secures Subsea Contract in Guyana’ and ‘ExxonMobil Makes Two New Oil Finds in Guyana’ in BreakbulkOne page 80.
O&G HOTSPOTS HEATING UP
The U.S. Geological Survey, or USGC, said the Guyana-Suriname Basin could hold 13.6 billion barrels of oil and 32 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, ranking it the second-most prospective unexplored basin in the world.
42 BREAKBULK MAGAZINE www.breakbulk.com SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022
Excitement continues to build in offshore Guyana, billed by some as the world’s most exciting hotspot for exploration and production.
Colombia-based Simon West is senior reporter for Breakbulk. The EIC’s Amanda Duhon will be pre senting a breakbulk and project market outlook with a focus on U.S. energy markets at Breakbulk Ameri cas 2022, taking place on Sept. 27-29 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas.
In the region, 210 conventional power projects are slated to begin operations by 2030, 16 percent of the total project pipeline.
Buoyant oil prices, pre-salt’s high productivity, good infrastructure and a raft of industry-friendly reforms –including a new rule four years ago scrapping Petrobras’s mandatory role as sole operator of pre-salt projects –are luring investment, with ambitious field development being undertaken by operators such as Equinor, Shell, Trident Energy, Prio, Enauta, Karoon and“ThePerenco.increasing diversity of play ers is another key enabler of business opportunities in Brazil’s oil and gas market,” Ferreira said.
Meanwhile, the former Dutch col ony of Suriname, which shares oil and gas resources in the Guyana-Suriname Basin, could also be on the verge of its own offshore boom, with state energy company Staatsolie announcing in May plans to hold an auction for offshore blocks by year-end.
“The company has carried out various field development projects featuring FPSOs (floating production, storage and offloading vessels) over the last decade, focusing on the mas sive Tupi, Mero and Buzios projects in the Santos basin,” Ferreira said. “And many more will come, as the company’s latest investment plan calls for 15 new FPSOs by 2026.”
Two of those finds – Liza 1 and Liza 2 – are already producing 340,000 barrels of oil per day, or b/d. With the likely start-up of the Payara and Yellowtail projects in 2023 and 2025, respectively, crude at the block could be flowing at a rate of more than 800,000 b/d within three years.
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“We have to look at and exam ine our tried-and-true approaches,” Amine said. “There’s a huge shift from a global supply chain to regional and local supply chains. The global supply
– Tarek Amine
Bechtel VP Rethinks Supply Chain in His ‘Learning Journey’
As Bechtel comes up on its cel ebration in 2023 of the 125-year anniversary of the firm’s founding in San Francisco, time-honored method ologies are being revisited, according to Amine, who has been engaged for more than 23 years with Bechtel proj ects throughout the world.
REVISITING APPROACHES
BY PAUL SCOTT ABBOTT PROFILE
44 BREAKBULK MAGAZINE www.breakbulk.com SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022
acing a combination of chal lenges previously unseen in his nearly quarter-century global “learning journey” with Bechtel, Tarek Amine is rethinking the supply chain approach of the venerable engineering, construction and project management firm, placing a renewed emphasis on productive partnerships.
AMINE FOCUSES ON PARTNERSHIPS
F
As Reston, Virginia-headquartered Bechtel’s principal vice president and chief supply chain officer, Amine is at the fore of laying the groundwork for the next 125 years of the longtime leading EPC company while maintain ing commitment to such key corporate values as safety and environmental stewardship.“Forthelast few years, we’re defi nitely going through an unprecedented large volume of dynamic changes impacting the supply chain,” Amine told Breakbulk from a jobsite in Saudi Arabia. “In our industry, over the many years, we have established a predictable supply chain with a global reach, and we’re now seeing that being shaken to the extent we are actually rethinking what we had taken for granted for many years.”
“The key to our success is truly an integrated partnership and working relationship and coordination between our customer, ourselves and our supply base.”
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between our customer, ourselves and our supply base, whether it be our subcontractor, transportation provider or a supplier,” Amine continued. “We rely on them tremendously for our suc cess and our delivery, and we consider them a partner in working with them in finding resolutions.
“We rely heavily on our suppliers and subcontractors,” he said, “from design through fabrication in support ing our construction schedule and sequencing that we need. That rela tionship is key for our success.”
“Our goal is to create value for the local community,” he said. “We participate and partner with the com munities where we live and work.
“We’re having to examine how we get confident our materials and equipment will be at the right location when needed, with all of the changes and every factor impacting the supply chain, whether it is the price of the commodity or the logistics constraints or the availability of truck drivers or the port’s wait time or the tariffs or sanctions,” Amine said. “So, we have to navigate all of these factors that rarely in the past have moved at the same time. Usually, we’ve seen one or two, but not all of them, changing.
“For us, the key is really about our ability to support our customers and projects,” he said. “And we focus on that and try to partner with our customers for a solution while having open, transparent interactions about the issues we’re seeing so we can get to resolutions and decisions quickly.
PROFILE SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022
Recently, Amine said, the phrase “the golden key” has emerged, refer ring to how a single component can hold up shipment of a finished good – “and that component could be the least-cost one, but it becomes golden because it’s not there.
At the same time, Amine looks to advance Bechtel’s longstanding com mitment to better the communities in which it is engaged.
CREDIT: BECHTEL
chain – where value, predictability and reliability were the bedrock – has really been shaken now, and it’s really more like values and transparency are driving where we source material. That has compelled us to re-evaluate how strong the supply chain is.”
“The amount of change has really impacted the strong, reliable supply chain that we knew and relied upon,” Amine said. “I jokingly say the sup ply chain before had been boring and very predictable, with nothing excit ing about it. You didn’t hear a lot of people talk about it. But now, every body knows what the supply chain is about. People are realizing that the supply chain – which is made out of many people doing many things and trying to connect complex transactions – used to be in the backroom, and now it’s in the front room. It’s in front of everybody’s eyes.”
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“Our approach,” he said, “has to be to get a lot closer to them [supply chain partners], to reinforce partner ship-type relationships, understanding
that constraints are universal and what the market sees and what we’re seeing is truly impacting everybody.
“We have to learn more, under stand more and try to identify the vulnerabilities within the supply chain and where the risk lies – whether it is geographical or material-based or logistical-based – and truly partner with them to work through the chal lenges that we see and find resolutions in real time.”
With increasingly regionalized and localized – and evermore transpar ent – supply chains, it has become more crucial than ever for Bechtel to enhance collaborations with customers and the full spectrum of providers.
SEIZING ‘THE GOLDEN KEY’
“The key to our success is truly an integrated partnership and work ing relationship and coordination
“Of course, we continually focus on the diversification of our supplier base and provide ample opportunities for diverse companies to work with us,” he added. “So we engage on every level, and we think it is very important that we create the most cooperative relationship to address and resolve the issues rather than trying to prevent them.”
Amine cited such present factors as inflation, Covid-19, logistical and labor market challenges, and sanc tions and tariffs. Also, beyond market dynamics, are mounting sustainability requirements, including for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, leading to advances in such realms as electric vehicles and solar, renewable and car bon transition initiatives.
Modules head to Curtis Island, off the Australian coast, for use in construction of extensive liquefied natural gas facilities – an undertaking that kept Bechtel’s Tarek Amine down under from 2010 through 2016.
“We created a new ecosystem of how we execute a project through collaboration and leveraging and cen tralization of many of the activities,” he said. “That model of execution is still a model that is a differentiator in terms of how we look at projects.”
Among areas with highest levels of present Bechtel activity is the LNG industry along the U.S. Gulf Coast, but Amine was quick to say current company engagement is “pretty much across all our business units.”
PROFILE
CREDIT: BECHTEL
‘EXCITING BECKONINGTIME’
Bechtel’s business units encompass energy, infrastructure, manufacturing and technology, mining and metals, and nuclear, security and environmen tal markets.“It’sdefinitely an exciting time, with the emergence of new markets and new sectors,” Amine said. “I think we’re seeing a renewed solar and renewable energy focus, energy transi tion and emerging manufacturing and
Amid the myriad present chal lenges, business remains strong for Bechtel, according to Amine, who said the company is active across all business units, with a host of projects and prospects around the globe at dif ferent levels of maturity, including in construction, design, study and evalu ation
That said, Bechtel continues to be discerning in choosing what work to assume.“For Bechtel, as a privately held firm, we’ve always been selective in the type of projects we are taking in, and we always focus on taking projects that match our values and covenants and what brings value to our customers and to our name,” Amine
“So,said.while performance, cost and schedule are important, they have never been the only driver for us,” he said. “I think working on transforma tional projects – bringing value to and connecting communities – is consis tent with Bechtel’s critical beliefs.
Construction proceeds on development of liquefied natural gas facilities on Curtis Island, off the coast of Queensland, Australia, providing more than US$1.5 billion in wages to local residents, including Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders.
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“Fromstages.ageneral activity forecast for all global projects, we see tremen dous activities across all the world,” Amine said. “It’s kind of hard for me to pinpoint exactly, but I can tell you we feel we are in a very active mode where we see high business activities across all of our business units.”
technology. I think there’s different excitement about different sectors in the current times, as well as the tradi tional ones, which are infrastructure and government. It’s definitely a lot more than two or three years ago.”
Indeed, when asked about the most gratifying project experience he has had in his 23-plus years with Bechtel, Amine, who has worked on ventures in seven countries across four conti nents, responded, “it’s tough to pick one. Each one of those holds a special meaning.”Butthen he homed in on the trio of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, mega projects on Curtis Island, off the coast of Queensland, Australia, that kept him down under from 2010 through 2016. The endeavors deployed creative procurement models and entailed daily boat, barge and ferry transits between the island and a small mainland har bor. Impacts included US$350 million in subcontract awards to 40-plus local businesses and more than US$1.5 billion in wages to local residents, including more than 500 Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders.
on trying for our supply chain to be a differentiator.”Askedifhe ever tires of multi year deployments managing projects throughout the world, Amine replied: “Not really. I look at my work as really a learning journey. I get huge excite ment from the work we do, the people who do the work we do and their excitement and the communities in which we work.
“It’s exciting what we do and the size and magnitude with which we do it and the value and the care that Bechtel has where we work and how we deliver our work and what we leave behind,” Amine said. “We care a lot about what we deliver.” BB
PROFILE
BENEFITING FROM MENTORING
This effort to maximize diversity extends from the internal business resource groups like Women@Bechtel to mentoring partnerships with several universities, plus the Bechtel Global Centers of Excellence assimilate exceptional subject matter experts in providing unique solutions. Amine is personally active in mentoring programs including those of the Women’s Energy Network-Houston and American
A professional journalist for more than 50 years, U.S.-based Paul Scott Abbott has focused on transporta tion topics since the late 1980s.
“So,” he continued, “I honestly look forward to going to our projects, to travel and feel the excitement of what we do on a daily basis. I feel I’m privileged that I can do that, and I don’t look at that as work.
Amine pointed to Bechtel’s net zero target, working with customers and partners across the supply chain to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
“We mentor, but we learn at the same time. We get exposed to the new thought process and the new excitement and energy, so I think it’s absolutely vital for us on a company level, and I think it’s enriching on a personal level to the mentor as well as the mentee.
www.breakbulk.com BREAKBULK MAGAZINE 49
University of Beirut, one of his alma maters in addition to the University of Houston.“Webelieve investing time to develop the next generation is truly investing in success and building our company for the long term,” Amine said. “We are coming up to 125 years as a company. We plan for the next 125 years, so mentoring and growing the talent is paramount for us.
Development of liquefied natural gas megaprojects on Curtis Island, off the coast of Australia, is cited by Tarek Amine as one of the most gratifying endeavors with which he has been engaged in nearly a quarter-century with Bechtel.
“Safety is not a priority; it’s a value,” Amine said. “It’s a belief that we want to ensure every person goes home safely at the end of the day. Plus being good stewards of the environ ment is a high value.”
“And we definitely have a lot of focus on our diversity and inclusion, making sure we continue to grow our talent,” he said. “Having a diversity of thought on better ways to build our project is a differentiator.”
CREDIT: BECHTEL
“The supply chain is not just about our supply base,” Amine said. “Sup ply chains really start with talent, with people who can act and operate and behave strategically and provide solutions for our projects. We spend a lot of time on talent development and bringing in new capabilities. I want to emphasize the importance of the people in our supply chain. We spend a lot of time seeking innovation, seeking rela tionship builders, and we really focus
TECHNOLOGY STARTING IMAGE CREDIT: EMS PORTS AGENCY AND STEVEDORING ILLUSTRATION: MARK CLUBB, CARMAR MEDIA 50 BREAKBULK MAGAZINE www.breakbulk.com SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022
ANDFORDIGITALIZATIONALLSHAPESSIZES Optimization Tools Smooth Project Complications
BY FELICITY LANDON
www.breakbulk.com BREAKBULK MAGAZINE 51 TECHNOLOGY
e have all heard the claims. The transport of project cargo is ‘differ ent’ because there are so many one-offs; it can’t be streamlined; and, somehow, the digitalization opportunities aren’t for this sector.
“Of course, project cargo departs from liner services in that the handling techniques, equipment and complexity vary from move to move; each time can be different, starting with a blank piece of paper to design the transport process,” said Matt Kenney, head of research and intelligence at Thetius consultancy.More‘regular’ shipping, from con tainers to tankers, is more open to port call optimization and Single Window advancements, and project cargo often sees itself as outside that, he said. “But in my estimation, there are aspects of how the project cargo sector operates that means it has its own use case for digitalization.“Themost obvious is vulnerability to inclement sea and weather condi tions. Think of Boskalis transporting a 90,000-tonne floating production stor age and offloading unit on the back of a heavy-lift vessel. We are talking about units that are enormous, often
The carrying vessel stability can need very precise calculation, and often weather and wave height limits are imposed. Voyage routing is prob ably providing new capability even though not everyone is aware of it, he said.
• Greater connectivity between owners, charterers and shippers, with more sharing of digitalized docu mentation and information such as hazardous goods, ETAs and cargo tracking.•Innovations around ship opera tions and management, including voyage optimization.
VISIBILITY PREDICTABILITYAND
Theare.software platform was devel oped and launched in response to the demand for accessibility, visibility and predictability, deugro said. It’s designed to support informed plan ning and decision-making, provide real-time detailed visibility, increase efficiency and mitigate cost exposure in the supply chain.
The other side of the coin is decar bonization, and this is vessel type agnostic, including multipurpose ves sels, or MPVs. “All vessels need to start tightening up their emissions. For example, the Poseidon Principles require shipping companies and own ers to prove that their financed fleets are aligned with net zero trajecto ries, and digitalization is playing an increasingly large role in helping ship owners to collect the required data on emissions, etc. The Internet of Things is coming in terms of measuring, but also for packaging, relaying, and veri fyingWhiledata.”port call optimization has mainly been discussed in connection with liners doing set routes, all ship owners have a responsibility to decar bonize and just-in-time shipping must be considered, Kenney said, so that instead of arriving two days early, only to wait at anchorage for an available berth, the ship’s voyage speed and
with extreme air draft, and weighing tens of thousands of tonnes.”
W
arrival are adjusted to arrive when the berth is available.
“Believe it or not, even though some of the pieces being shipped are really huge, they are still getting lost in a yard environment,” said Mario Hess, global head of customer solu tions – deugro visiotrack. “It sounds
He highlighted three areas of inno vation in breakbulk/project cargo:
deugro visiotrack, a web-based track-and-trace/supply chain manage ment system created by deugro, helps with budgeting, scheduling, tracking and measuring carbon footprint – and it even has a module which can locate big pieces of kit if no one’s sure where they
• Trade facilitation through AI, improved data flows, traffic manage ment platforms and simplified streams of data to match ships with cargo at the commercial level.
Some instances are more broadly based – port call optimization, voyage planning, weather routing – while oth ers are very much designed with the bespoke in mind.
He also foresees more use of digital twinning in project cargo movements. “Shell has invested heavily in produc ing a digital twin of its North Sea assets. I can imagine a scenario where digital twinning will be brilliant at testing and iterating logistics plan ning. For example, you could have a computer simulation of what happens if you take the accommodation block off and ship it separately. Digital twin ning can help to come up with the best solutions.”
“Believe it or not, even though some of the pieces being shipped are really huge, they are still getting lost in a yard environment. It sounds surprising when you are talking about a huge 12-meter pipeline structure, but we do get ‘I can’t find it.’ ”
But however much some specialists proudly boast of traditional skills and bespoke solutions, digitized systems and solutions are emerging and rapidly changing even in this sector.
Thetius’ intelligence platform tracks 2,500 companies working in digital innovation in shipping and as far as project cargo is concerned, there is a good amount going on in the weather routing and voyage opti mization area, Kenney said. Machine learning and big data processing is enabling far more accurate modeling of a vessel’s position and progress and the weather conditions ahead: “This can give a much more sophisticated forward plan over the next 48 hours or so; rather than saying ‘we think in the next 48 hours you might have a 30 percent chance of waves exceeding your amber limit,’ the information can be ‘at 1605 hours, you are expected to be in this position, and waves will be 28 percent.’ ”
ADVANCES IN ROUTING ADVICE
more money left in the budget to opt for premium transportation levels –then the complete freight invoice posts, leading to a budget overrun.”
“Clients are just treating the work sequentially and they can end up receiving more volume of cargo than they can cope with in the timeframe. This continues to build up without clearing the backlog. We have created a visualizer for that – to show ship ments planned and what time they are expected to hit the pinch point.
RELIEVING FINANCIAL PAIN
TECHNOLOGY
deugro visiotrack, a web-based track-and-trace/supply chain management system created, helps with budgeting, scheduling, tracking and measuring carbon footprint – and it even has a module which can locate big pieces of kit if no one’s sure where they are. CREDIT: deugro
of where the platform helps in complex logistics requirements, for clients rang ing from engineering, procurement and construction companies, drilling con tractors and oil and gas producers, to the mining resupply, power generation or and low-carbon energy sectors.
Mario Hess deugro visiotrack
One of deugro visiotrack’s most recently deployed feature is overlaying pictures of equipment in a yard with GPS location. The user takes pictures on a mobile phone; the system provides a geographical overlay to pinpoint exactly where things are in the yard.
SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 202252 BREAKBULK MAGAZINE www.breakbulk.com
On the finance side, the deugro visiotrack platform helps to budget more accurately and avoid common pitfalls. Hess said the system gives customers a clear overview of how they are doing with their logistics budget or spend for a specific project, avoiding the traditional overruns of logistics costs in projects that are caused by invoicing not yet posted.
Often, one tiny invoice can delay the posting of an end invoice, and this can lead to significant cost overruns when a client spends funds that really aren’t available – much like a credit card when pending charges not yet posted are not factored into a user’s remaining credit limit.
“Usually, GPS is provided by the triangulation of cell phone towers but we can access through mobile GPS, to provide very accurate coordinates,” Hessdeugrosaid. is looking at releasing this functionality to locate equipment in the transloading stage, too, so that operators on site transloading heavy equipment can take pictures which will then be geo-tagged on screen.
deugro visiotrack is also being applied to ease pinch points in major projects. Hess explained: “In almost all the major projects we execute, there will be certain pinch points where a lot of cargo has to flow through but there is limited capacity in terms of space, equipment and labor.
surprising when you are talking about a specificwasHowever,atrackasofit.’dostructure,12-meterhugepipelinebutweget‘Ican’tfind”Descriptionsplatformssuchdeugrovisiocanresemblewordsalad.Hesshappytogiveexamples
“We have seen that on numer ous locations – someone waiting for crane charges (specifically for cost plus contracts), the shipment already executed, but the final freight invoice is not there. People think they have
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project side is very strong; we have significantly more projects on the plat form than fast moving container goods, so there is a very clear push from our client side. The amount of customers demanding digital solutions is getting more and more, to the point that they already consider that as a given when we are bidding for projects.”
Wärtsilä’s Smart Panoramic Edge Camera System gives 360-degree situational awareness, streamed directly to the bridge in real-time. CREDIT: WÄRTSILÄ
54 BREAKBULK MAGAZINE www.breakbulk.com SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022
Elsewhere in the technology space, Wärtsilä’s recently launched Smart Panoramic Edge Camera System, or SPECS, provides a 360-degree vessel view streamed directly to the bridge in real time. So far, Wärtsilä has been mainly working with container ship and ferry operators in installing the system – and getting good feedback, said Sarah Barrett, senior marketing manager. “However, SPECS is cer tainly suitable for MPVs. The system
“A good comparison would be a big project offshore where all the freight must go through an onshore yard for transloading to the barge to be moved offshore. This location has perhaps a capacity of 24,000 cubic meters throughput per week and there is cargo coming from domestic and interna tional locations.”
can be made, for example rescheduling domestic truck deliveries by a few days. deugro has invested significant amounts to embrace the digital future, Hess said. “The last two years we have all been working from home – everyone is used to knowing exactly when their Amazon package is coming. Why can’t I see it with my gas converter or break bulk“Demandload? for digitalization on the
If it’s clear that too much freight is going to arrive at once, adjustments
, .
VISIBILITY IN THE ROUND
TECHNOLOGY
grid indicating the distance and bear ing to selected objects in the live video. The system can connect to onboard navigation systems to extra AIS and GNSS data to deliver augmented real ity views.
Wärtsilä said the camera pods installed for SPECS are designed to cope with harshest marine environ ments; they work with a powerful video processing system to deliver a “super-wide field of view” Features include the bird’s eye view of the near field of the vessel and a superimposed
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provides excellent situational aware ness in real-time for vessels. With the increasing size of vessels, there is less margin for error when maneuvering in port. SPECS enhances the visibil ity that the bridge has, providing a bird’s eye view around the vessel so, for example, you can see the sides of the vessel without having to go to the bridge wings and you can see exactly what the tugs are doing.
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The increasing sophistication of weather routing services takes the guess work out of voyage options for breakbulk cargo.
As a result, SPECS can eliminate blind spots, improve safety and reduce damage and associated costs. It can also be used for training and, if there is an incident, the recording support subsequent investigations.
CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK
“SPECS could also help with vis ibility where the vessel is carrying an extremely large load. It is certainly an area where we see potential.”
“The lockdowns in 2020 and 2021 simply emphasized this point and those companies unable to communicate with their staff, clients, government offices and service providers either ended up closing shop or scrambling to catch up and join the 21st century.”
ELEPHANT AT THE PROJECT DOOR
An unusual situation arose during the KwaZulu Natal unrest where Grin drod played “hide and seek” with the mobs and some very expensive loco motives that it had been trucking down to Durban for shipment.
Felicity Landon is an award-winning freelance journalist specializing in the ports, shipping, transport and logistics sectors.
“A tricky task, especially when the load ship was waiting at anchor with a rather high demurrage rate. Constant communication between our abnormal load team, our agents in Durban and Richards Bay on which route to take, and which port to proceed to, meant that we were able to switch load ports and successfully get the locomotives alongside the ship on arrival in Richards Bay. Again, it’s people using technol ogy that make the difference, that, and the ability of the team to remain agile.”
In today’s world, every logistics company must have embraced tech nology and digitalization to be of use to their clients and indeed to survive, according to Rob Gardner, business development executive at Grindrod Freight Services in Cape Town.
TECHNOLOGY
the appropriate technology, be it a cell phone, laptop, or satellite phone, that are the difference between a make-orbreakProjectproject.”cargo is exciting and calls for people able to think on their feet and use all of the tools of the trade, he added. “We have moved Baobab trees and giraffes over roads and under bridges that the construction team had never considered in their computer programs when originally building this infrastructure.“Wehavehad to wait for an ele phant to move away from the door and cobras to get out of the office before we could come to our desks and start work. In these cases, your biggest asset is patience and possibly fast feet!”
CREDIT: GRINDROD
SPECS was created by the busi ness division Wärtsilä Voyage, which focuses on providing the maritime industry with technology solutions “to future-proof operations and enable it to adapt to the very biggest challenges on the horizon.”
“Because it is recorded, it is much easier and faster to get the informa tion together after an incident,” Barrett said. “You really see what has happened. That could be interesting if there has been an incident with a load.”Customer feedback has praised the enhanced visibility and but also pointed out how important systems like SPECS are for younger talent, she added. “If you want to attract younger talent [to the shipping industry], you have to have modern technologies.“Another benefit noted by cus tomers is that they believe they will be able to maneuver more quickly. If you are confident that you can see your surroundings, maneuvering will be faster. And maneuvering always equates to higher fuel consumption.”
The focus is on supporting decarbonization, better connections between sea and shore, making the most of data, simulation, and a range of tech and software solutions to opti mize operations. “We are looking at optimizing the vessel itself and we are also looking at the ecosystem of the ports and beyond,” Barrett said. She believes that the maritime industry’s digital transformation will require more collaboration and communica tion between systems – “breaking down the silos between the technolo gies, to maximize value.”
Grindrod played “hide and seek” with mobs and some very expensive locomotives being trucked to Durban for shipment.
Grindrod has always used technol ogy that improves its service levels, he said. “We rely on a multitude of systems to improve our interaction with our end customers and to ensure that their cargo arrives safely and in good condition. We are not unique in this. I am sure most companies have auto mation of customs clearance across multiple border points, the ability for the customer to use an app to access all documents, real-time tracking of cargo while it is at sea and, in our case, tracking it on the African roads with immediate feedback from inside the truck cabin. All of these are the tools of the trade, very much like the telex and fax machine were in their day.”
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“A lot of the barriers are getting hardware on board, or a service engi neer; it takes time and costs money, and what’s the ROI? Why not look at the systems already on board, like ECDIS, and look at software upgrades around that?” BB
What hasn’t changed in the indus try, Gardner said, is the need to have competent and knowledgeable staff on site. “It is these people in the ports, on the road, in warehouses, in bush camps and on remote beaches, armed with
The region’s only event made for project cargo professionals 13-14 FEBRUARY 2023 DUBAI WORLD TRADE CENTRE | DUBAI, UAE a Hyve event Go Big. Exhibit at Breakbulk Middle middleeast.breakbulk.comEast Advertise in BREAKBULK MAGAZINE | MIDDLE EAST EDITION Distributed to All Event Attendees https://breakbulk.com/page/advertise Photo:AlFarisGroup
The reality of a U.S. unemployment rate of 3.6 percent (U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics) for June 2022 – near the lowest rate in 50 years – is a wake-up call to hiring manag ers. In today’s competitive marketplace for talent there is a paradigm shift not only from hiring to recruiting, but also in how employers interact with local tier one public research universities.
Paradigm Shift to Recruiting for Purpose Before Position
Building upon research conducted by Paul Benneworth, David Charles and Ali Madanipour in 2010 in Building Local ized Interactions Between Universities and Cities Through University Spatial Development, the relationship between UH/SCLT and industry could be under stood in terms of a knowledge enterprise and supplier of human and intellectual capital and deliberative partnerships with UH/SCLT and industry around projects of mutual benefit, respectively.
Successful organizations that have operationalized recruiting for purpose before position have leveraged relation ships with local universities in terms of:
Margaret Kidd is program director, supply chain & logistics technology at the University of Houston.
As both faculty and students from UH and other regional universities will be attending Breakbulk Americas, an excel lent opportunity exists for those who want to change the paradigm and recruit for a purpose before position. With typically more than 140 students partici pating each year, this is a safe space to operationalize recruiting in an extremely competitive marketplace for talent.
Human resource professionals and business unit leaders must pivot from traditional hiring practices that include reviewing resumes from job postings, checking references and conducting struc tured interviews. The new paradigm is about recruiting for culture fit with orga nizational strategy, structure and values. This requires recruiting for purpose before position and is accomplished by engaging and winning over talented peo ple who fit your organizational culture.
• Providing student tours of corporate facilities.•Committing to participate once per semester in speaker series on campus.
• Engagement with students on cap stone projects.
Universities are key determinates of regional competitiveness in terms of workforce development that meets industry needs. Both the University of Houston, or UH, and the Supply Chain & Logistics Technology program, or SCLT, are key players in the development of a regional knowledge economy.
he Covid-related supply chain dis ruption and great resignation, as well as Russia’s war on Ukraine, has created a new dimension for employers looking to recruit, train and retain a global workforce. As a result, employers in general and the engineering, procurement and construction/thirdparty logistics world in particular are scrambling to find talent as major capital and renewable projects ramp up.
• Offering multiple internship oppor tunities throughout the year.
Top: Attendees at Breakbulk Americas Education Day celebrate collaboration with industry. CREDIT: BREAKBULK EVENTS
See you in September! BB
T
BY MARGARET KIDD
• Funding sponsored research.
Time to Redefine Relationships with Universities
• Including students at industry events/conferences such as Breakbulk Americas.
THOUGHT LEADER 58 BREAKBULK MAGAZINE www.breakbulk.com SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022
WORKFORCE OF THE FUTURE
SUBSCRIBE to the industry’s leading source of information for cargo owners, logisticians and transport specialists. PROJECT CARGO CASE STUDIES REGIONAL REPORTS MARKET ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY PORTS & TERMINALS BREAKBULKTECHNOLOGYROAD/RAIL/BARGE/AIROCEANINFRASTRUCTUREENERGYCARRIERS&EQUIPMENTEVENTS To start your subscription, visit www.breakbulk.com/subscribe/ For advertising information, go to www.breakbulk.com/page/advertise DICEENERGYTHEROLLING Movers Readying Capabilities toService Transition INSIDE THIS ISSUE Pace Taken Off MPV Rate Growth Heavy Haulers Face Off-road Challenge US Project Boom Imminent NEW: Up Front – Dynamic ContentPLUS: Breakbulk MIddle East Recap March-April 2022 INDUSTRIAL PROJECT CARGO BREAKBULK& SPECIAL REPORT: EUROPEAN PORTS AND TERMINALS January-February 2022 The Publication for the Industrial Project Supply Chain Industry ISSUEMIDDLEBREAKBULKEAST IN THIS ISSUEOman’s Ecofriendly Ambitions Bridging Bahrain’s GapProfile: DHL’s Sue DonoghueAl Faris Moves Mining Mountains ENERGY UPDATE: COP26 – SETTING A PATH FOR SECTOR’S DECARBONIZATION The Publication for the Industrial MalcomCHEERFULTOREASONSBE Optimism for EnergyInfrastructure Projects May-June 2022 INDUSTRIAL PROJECT CARGO BREAKBULK& The Publication for BIG Breakbulk Cyber-Sense The ProjectPublication NAVIGATING
Accompanying pieces included a crane spreader bar and a 53-foot con tainer with parts.
CASE
elivering an oversize, over weight cargo crane to a seaport is almost always a challenge. There is often a finite list of standard handling and routing alternatives. A little innova tion can go a long way in improving transportation speed and cost without compromising safety.
In early 2022, UTC Overseas bucked the norms, and safely barged a fully assembled mobile harbor crane through the Gulf of Mexico. The primary cargo was a 255-tonne Gottwald HMK5506 mobile harbor crane. Including counterweights, the shipment loaded out at 360 tonnes. Even with the boom lowered, the crane stood 31.4 meters tall and the boom measured 54 meters.
Patrik Meyer specializes in product and trade lane development at UTC Overseas Inc. One distinctive aspect of the crane move was that the crane was engineer-driven on and off the barge via remote control. Also, no external equipment was used, and no assembly was required upon arrival in Tampa. The fact that the crane did not need to be lifted eliminated costs and expedited the Typically,move. mobile harbor cranes are disassembled into smaller, more manageable pieces before transport, and reconstructed at final destination. Standard practice is to then move the components to and from the dock via special self-propelled modular trans port units, or SPMTs, then lift them on and off the vessel using one or more heavy-lift cranes. In this case, the Gottwald crane was driven on and off a barge over plates – an innovative step that eliminated the need for specialized
Assembled Harbor Crane Barged through Gulf
EASY LOAD, EASY OFFLOAD
New customers underscored the need for timely delivery of the crane: “This additional Gottwald crane was necessary to provide efficient service to Dole by allowing us to operate with two gangs for the stevedoring opera tions,” said Russell Smeback, chief financial officer at PLRS.
D
“As the region’s refrigerated busi ness expands, faster, efficient loading becomes critical. This type of crane adds lift capacity and will expedite vessel turn times. It is good for the port.” PLRS, took delivery of the crane on Jan. 21, 2022.
BY LORI MUSSER STUDY
OVERSEASUTCCREDIT: 60 BREAKBULK MAGAZINE www.breakbulk.com SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022
Brian Giuliani, vice president of operations for Port Tampa Bay, said PLRS’s second mobile harbor crane was a welcome addition.
A growing focus on optimizing terminal throughput per square foot has been integral to the nation’s supply chain recovery strategies.
BUCKING THE NORMS
The crane made the five-day trip from the Port of Brownsville, Texas, to Port Logistics Refrigerated Services, or PLRS, in Port Tampa Bay, Florida. The route covered 820 miles.
In this case, UTC knew the crane could be operated by an on-board driver or by remote control. Choosing to drive the unit from its stationary position on and off the barge via the remote control was a novel decision, allowing for more caution and precision and helping to minimize risks.
Consolidated Terminals and Logis tics Co, or CTLC, managed logistics services for the marine transportation leg of the crane move from Brownsville to Tampa. This included the hiring of the dedicated tug with an ABS Class
www.breakbulk.com BREAKBULK MAGAZINE 61
On this move, time and money were saved. “We also negated the need for trucks, permits, police escorts, and specialized transit times on roads … Another advantage was that there was no down time once the crane arrived at PLRS; it was operationally ready the next day,” Meyer said.
Constant monitoring once under way played an essential role, too. From a customer service perspective, keeping a close eye on specialized moves offers piece of “Dailymind.updates from the barge company provided us with vessel loca tion, distance traveled and distance to destination. ETA to Tampa Bay was updated multiple times a day depending on weather and sea conditions,” Meyer said.DeLuca emphasized the importance of safety in marine transport. He said that, generally speaking, the larger the cargo, the larger the risk involved with safe transportation from load port to unload port: “When dealing with a piece of cargo that is erect such as this crane, a voyage plan has to be created to account for overhead obstructions such as power lines or bridges. If transiting blue water, close attention has to be paid to weather conditions to make sure the vessel is operating within the limita tions of the approved stowage plan.”
The unit was secured with straps, D-rings and chains. CREDIT: UTC OVERSEAS
CASE STUDY
lifting equipment and transporters. The use of a barge also eliminated the need for a Jones Act-compliant heavy-lift ship.Heavy-lift cranes, ships and SPMTs are costly to secure and time-consum ing to put into action.
Special Projects execu tive Andrew DeLuca said: “It is not unusual to transport fully assembled cranes by barge, but it is less common to transport a crane of this magnitude fully“Theassembled.”mainchallenge was to make sure that the barge was ballasted correctly at all times of loading/ unloading. Any miscalculation could have led to shifting of the barge while loading or sailing. We had multiple engineers that worked together … to come up with a preliminary plan to avoid any miscalculations. Using water pumps, the team was able to add/remove any water that was needed throughout the day as we had to adjust for the rising/lowering tide in ports,” Meyer“Thisadded.alltakes time and coordi nation to make sure it is done safely. Communication and proper planning with and by those contracted for the movement is the key to success and it is critical to a safe operation,” DeLuca said.
“The main challenge was to make sure that the barge was ballasted correctly at all times of loading/unloading. Any miscalculation could have led to shifting of the barge while loading or sailing.”
DeLuca said that if the sea state, which takes into consideration the height of waves and speed of wind, among other factors, exceeds those limi tations, backup plans would need to be executed.
deck barge, and communication and coordination with vessel agents, local port authorities and tug services for safe entry and exit of Brownsville and Tampa.CTLC
– Patrik Meyer
ON THE WATER
A comprehensive plan to secure the crane and cargo was developed well in advance by engineers. To lower the center of gravity of the crane and improve load stability, the crane’s boom was lowered. “Stabilizing this immense piece of equipment and restricting movement while in transit was critical … the unit was firmly secured using straps, D-rings and chains,” Meyer said. Upon arrival, the boom was easily raised, and chains, straps and D-rings were removed. Then the crane was in business.Innovation that minimizes time and costs is a UTC customer service goal. Meyer said the company has a competi tive edge in that its heavy equipment team studies and knows cranes and equipment and how they operate. “We do not move a couch in the morning and a crane in the afternoon. In total we have 33 heavy equipment specialists globally,” Meyer said. He added their knowledge base is fundamental to carv ing out optimal transport solutions.
In this move, all was well. Weather was reasonable, and the clearance on Tampa’s Sun shine Skyway, at roughly 53 meters, allowed plenty of room.
INNOVATION FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE
Meyer said using standard procedures would not have been cost-effective for the customer in this case. It would have meant extra steps, spe cialized equipment, and extra time. He said those things come at a high cost. “We researched alternate methods and worked closely with our customer and their engineers to map out all aspects of the
plan. Partnering with experienced sub contractors was essential to executing the Meyerjob.” added that site visits were another important factor in ensuring that the planned move went off with out a UTChitch.had representatives at both port sites to meet with supervisors to review the best placement of the barge, the route over which the crane would be driven, and the positioning of any necessary equipment.
Using standard procedures would not have been cost-effective for the customer. CREDIT: PLRS
This proved fortuitous because an anomaly was encountered in Tampa, in the form of higher-than-expected bumpers. Special arrangements were made so the crane could be driven off the barge unimpeded. “Had we not put in the work to scope out every aspect, we would have run into unnec essary problems during unloading,” Meyer said. UTC also had representa tives on hand for the actual loading and unloading.
The customer, PLRS, was happy. Smeback said: “Our goals for the shipping of the crane were an efficient, timely and safe transport with no damages to the equipment. From start to finish, the operation was achieved to our satisfaction.”
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CASE STUDY
CREDIT:
Based in the U.S., Lori Musser is a veteran shipping industry writer.
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Constant monitoring of the cargo was essential. UTC OVERSEAS
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reshoringitypowerwillright,mous.willourtunitiesthePatagonia,ageAnchorfromregion,thecoveringinedbeAmericaextentToAmericas.thethatcanreimagasentiretoopporforindustrybeenorIfIamtheworldwitnesstheandprospernearshoring,andwillbring to the region in the decades to come. BB
America
Despite the fact that Latin Ameri can nation states have common features including language, religion and a shared colonial past, the region is not homogenous. In fact, it is enriched by its vast diversity. And while the history of the U.S. is unique in its genesis and development, these differences do not constitute barriers to cooperation and the forging of new allegiances within the region. What is more, the diversity within the U.S. itself is a great source of its strength and wealth. By aligning commonalities and shared interests, the region can expect to benefit from the opportunities that are emerging as a result of the current changes within the global business landscape.
So, if the U.S. is the land of opportunity, who are the visionary “Americans” that are already working to “expand” its borders to include the rest of what is commonly referred to as Latin America? These visionaries are already shifting existing paradigms by broaden ing their scope and embracing a more cohesive view of the
hen one is in the U.S., Latin America is regarded as a separate region.
CREDIT: LEADER
those that collaborate across the north/south divide of the Americas.
Rafael de los Santos is managing director of Tradelossa. as a Continent, Not a Country Breaking Down Borders
years ago, the Chinese were buying up giant industrial parks in Monterrey, Mexico, to satisfy American customers’ demands closer to home. For sure, bor ders are not what they used to be. These rapidly changing envi ronments have brought about new buzzwords such as “nearshoring” and “reshoring.” Words that are intended to make us aware that production is shifting closer to the industrialized world, with the U.S. being the most industrialized, and powerful example.
However, when you are in Mexico, Nicaragua, Perú or Colombia we talk about our territory as America. This is a significant difference in per ception between the millions who live in the Northern Hemisphere of the continent, and the ones who live to the south of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Today, the supply chain is changing quietly, but dramatically. By 2030 we will no longer recognize China as the manufacturer of the world. We will see a world where manufacturing is region alized.The war on Ukraine has profoundly changed the dynamics of the energy markets, and the western world has not wasted time in bringing the production of gas closer to the Gulf Coast of the U.S. Billions and billions of dollars are already being committed to make the Gulf of Mexico the new liquefied natu ral gas center of the world.
SHUTTERSTOCK THOUGHT
www.breakbulk.com BREAKBULK MAGAZINE 63
BY RAFAEL DE LOS SANTOS are rich opportunities for
There
CHINA’S AMBITIONSLIMITLESS
In addition, Covid-19 has shown that China is not invincible, but China continues to amaze us because it no longer sees itself limited by its borders. While the U.S. political system debated about a wall with Mexico only six
PROFILE
CREDIT: A.P. MOLLER-MAERSK 64 BREAKBULK MAGAZINE www.breakbulk.com SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022
TRANSFORMATIONMAERSK’S
Lindahl Leads Maersk’s Special Cargo Transformation
While this was a new chal lenge for Lindahl’s team, it was one planned for by APMM for many years. Indeed, the end-to-end opportuni ties thrust upon
.P. Moller-profits generated by its container and freight divisions over the past two years are helping the com pany build out its global logistics footprint, and enhancing its out-of-gauge service options in the process, according to Henrik Lindahl, special cargo logistics lead in A.P. Moller - Maersk’s (APMM) Special Cargo Solu tions andalsoinLindahl’ssqueezedcalotherrecordmodity,shipstheruptiveunprecedentedsectorThedivision.container-shippingwasbuffetedbyansetofdiseventsthroughoutpandemic.AsslotsonbecameapreciouscomfreightratesreachedlevelsandAPMMandcarriersrackeduphistoriprofits.WhilethespaceshortagetheoptionsavailabletoteamonthedecksandtheholdsoftheMaerskfleet,itcreatednewopportunities.Firstforemost,hetells
“We had lots of BCOs (beneficial cargo owners) coming direct to us because of the situation of limited space, limited equipment availability and so forth,” Lindahl said. “A lot of them had problems. Projects need timedefinite solutions. Cargo needs to be at sites or delivered to, for example, energy companies or state-owned projects. If they don’t deliver on time they are in trouble with high penalties. So, the market sought solutions direct with asset owners. That was a game-changer for us. It was suddenly about taking over a part [of the supply chain] that the forwarders used to do, meaning the onshore, the inland part, the origin and the destination.”
TAKING THE DIRECT ROUTE
A
BY MICHAEL KING
Henrik Lindahl.
Breakbulk, it encouraged shippers to approach asset owners directly for space.
Also, he added, many of the more recent logistics and storage acquisi tions by APMM did not have a huge direct impact on the company’s proj ects“Theydivision.are mainly for logistics solutions or 4PL solutions, or for air
Lindahl’s experience in project for warding makes him a perfect fit for the new strategy. Prior to joining Maersk in 2020, he served as industrial project manager for Kuehne+Nagel in Sweden, global director energy industrial proj ects at GEODIS and also held senior positions at Agility.
Container lines have been criti cized throughout the pandemic for schedule reliability levels that have barely surpassed 50 percent. Maersk has tended to be one of the better performers, and Lindahl said the Maersk name tended to be the trump card with customers, outweighing the scheduling and port congestion issues that have afflicted the entire sector.
freight and some domestic U.S., so they’re not specific to out-of-gauge,” he said. “But it has forced us in a direction where we need to find the right resources in countries that we can work with on support activities, so we’re not considered an ocean car rier but as an integrator.”
The strategy has been rocket-fueled by the huge profits the company has racked up during the pandemic which have enabled a string of investments to build out its forwarding, warehousing and logistics footprint worldwide. This transformation has created a far more expansive global logistics footprint covering services far beyond the port.
In turn, this has created new possibili ties for APMM’s project specialists.
“We have a splendid set up for integrated logistics on the container side, but it was quite new for us on the out-of-gauge side,” Lindahl explained. End-to-end logistics in some parts of the world like China and the U.S. were “no problem,” he said. Elsewhere the carrier partnered with a range of new vendors to build out its procurement operations and end-to-end out-ofgauge solutions footprint.
Lindahl said customers had pushed the issue. “They’ve come to us and said, ‘We want to do this with you,” so we’ve needed to find a solu tion, whether it’s partnering up with new vendors or developing old rela tionships a bit further. But there are a lot of countries out there and there’s a long way to go to have an out standing out-of-gauge performance end-to-end. It’s a work in progress. But there is demand for end-to-end services, especially now when space is tight and asset owners have certain capabilities.“Thefoundation is there; we need to build on it as an integrator.”
PROJECT FORWARDERS STILL VALUED
Lindahl insisted that despite the new strategy, freight forwarders were, and would remain, important custom ers of Maersk’s projects business.
APMM’s purchase of project cargo specialist Martin Bencher demonstrates the line’s commitment to whole chain coverage.
CREDIT: MARTIN BENCHER GROUP/MAERSK
Maersk’s Special Cargo Solutions division during the pandemic were first embraced by APMM as part of the conglomerate’s strategic rethink in 2016. Back then, APMM owned multiple businesses but was essentially operating in two markets that offered very little synergy – upstream oil & gas and container shipping. It was prospering in neither as both oil prices and ocean shipping freight rates were bearish, putting profits and market capitalization into retreat.
New management headed by Maersk veteran Søren Skou as CEO came up with a new strategy. In future, it was decided, APMM would move beyond offering port-to-port commoditized services and instead meet shippers’ global requirements door-to-door across modes. In essence, the plan was to deal directly with shippers and to hack into the some of the huge and consistent profits being generated by global integrators, for warders and 3PLs.
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especially until China, “a huge mar ket,” ends its strict Covid lockdown policy that particularly impacted cargo availability at the key break bulk port of Shanghai in the second quarter.Longer-term, Lindahl expects Maersk’s greatest opportunities to materialize as the group builds on its move towards offering integrated services across its cargo portfolio, including project logistics. “It’s dif ficult to look in the crystal ball, but what we know is that the heavy-lift shipping market has constraints in that there are no newbuild vessels coming in the next few years. Then we have other multipurpose vessels such as roll-on, roll-off vessels which are struggling now. But when that sector kicks up, there will be less space for breakbulk and oversized cargo.”This would continue to create openings for carriers in high demand sectors. “The renewable industry is the most growing breakbulk and outof-gauge related vertical with a lot of
He added: “It’s a significant num ber, but it’s still quite a small number overall of what we do in terms of unit izedHeshipping.”saidspace availability and storage options across the Maersk fleet – the second-largest box fleet in the world after MSC and totaling 733 vessels with capacity for 4.255 million 20-foot-equivalent units, accord ing to Alphaliner – currently varied depending on trade, space availability and box rates. “It’s not a competition within Maersk, but we need to have balance in terms of pricing and space usage,” he said.
upcoming projects globally,” he said. “With the constraints with windmills and their blades growing bigger, the heavy-lift carriers will [find this dif ficult to cater for]. This might open a demand for new solutions for the industry where container carriers might have an opportunity to play a larger role in the future.
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“If we see lower demand for con tainers, we’ll have more space for breakbulk and out-of-gauge cargo, so a lot depends on that.
Michael King is a multi-award win ning journalist as well as a shipping and logistics consultant.
Breakbulk cargo loaded in the hold of a Maersk vessel.
CREDIT: A.P. MOLLER-MAERSK
This has helped APMM keep its out-of-gauge volumes at consistent levels at around, “125,000 moves on special equipment, open tops, flat racks and as breakbulk per annum.”
DISRUPTIONS TO CONTINUE
“In three or four years’ time, we might see a different setup where container carriers could actually deal more with breakbulk, but it depends on how much space we have on the vessel and on the port capacities,” Lindahl said. BB
See Maersk to Acquire Martin Bencher Group – BreakbulkOne page 78
PROFILE
He expects pandemic-linked dis ruption, equipment dislocations and port congestion to continue to be an issue in the short and medium term,
For many customers, Scope 3 emis sions represent a large part of their total carbon footprint, which they will be keen to reduce. Hence, as a logistics company, providing low-carbon transportation and the numbers to prove it will be increas ingly important. Those who can provide ESG figures for their business partners will have a competitive edge, but this can also highlight improvement potential in the value chain where all parties can benefit.Getting traction on ESG, and inte grating it into the business, can seem like a daunting task. However, very few companies start at zero. ESG can be seen as a framework or a categorization of topics which are already material to the business. It will require a commitment to get it right, but the rewards will be well worth the effort.
“Getting traction on ESG, and integrating it into the business, can seem like a daunting task. However, very few companies start at zero.”
VALUE CREATION TOOL
• Human resources: A sound ESG platform will secure equal opportunity and fair wages for employees, as well as highlight the company’s sustainability efforts. This can improve employee moti vation and help retain and attract talent.
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recent report by the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping shows that only 35 percent of the world’s 94 leading shipping com panies have set climate goals. This is a low number given the strong focus on environmental, social and governance, or ESG, factors, particularly on carbon emissions reduction.
Seeing ESG as a compliance issue is not productive in this context. Compa nies should rather view ESG as a source to boost growth and value creation, some of the reasons being:
Cost reductions: Reducing emis sions normally equals lower energy consumption, which decreases the cost of fuel and electricity. Proven reduc tions will trigger incentives in the form of reduced fees from ports or terminals. Focus on ESG practice and reporting will also decrease the likelihood of incidents
Why ESG is a Business Imperative
A
BY HENNING REBNORD
THOUGHT LEADER
Other benefits include favorable financial terms, as many banks are now offering green loans.
Henning Rebnord is ESG and decarboniza tion manager at G2 Ocean.
It is not just shipping companies that are failing to set concrete climate goals. Of 5,241 companies surveyed in the 2021 S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment, only 36.8 percent confirmed plans to reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions.
In addition to looking at the orga nization itself, a holistic view of ESG topics is required. No company exists in isolation and an increased focus on ESG throughout the value chain is important.
The findings highlight the urgent case for stronger ESG commitment among businesses.Thereare
This is illustrated by using a logistics service provider as an example: their Scope 1 emissions are its customer’s Scope 3 emissions - emissions from acquired services, in this case, transpor tation of produce.
Urgent Case for Setting, Delivering ESG Goals
G2’s Star Istind approaching Port of Gdynia, Poland.
CREDIT: PIOTR LEWANDOWSKI
several reasons why com panies are holding back on their ESG commitments. Lack of knowledge, data and confidence in delivering ESG goals are some of the top ones. With new regu lations coming thick and fast, companies may feel pressured to set ambitious goals and get ESG procedures in place, which can be challenging when they are strug gling just to keep up with minimum requirements.
• Increased revenues: As consumer expectations on sustainability are growing, companies with a strong ESG approach can benefit from increased revenues through enhanced reputation, improved customer satisfaction, and growth in both new and existing mar kets.•
STUKSRUDVERONIKACREDIT:
or penalties, which can be damaging to a company’s reputation and finances.
• Investment and strategy optimi zation: As the focus on ESG increases and regulations adapt, a holistic ESG perspective can future-proof investments and keep companies aligned with future sustainability demands.
OILFIELD SERVICES RISE IN IMPORTANCE
takecountingglobalthewasKuehne+NageltransportSwitzerland-headquarteredandlogisticsgroupsaidoilfieldservicesthemostimportantsegmentforcompany,withmanyofthemajoroilfieldservicescompaniesasitsclients.“Althoughtheexplorationwillsometime,webelievethatdevelopingoffshoreproductionandonshoresupportresourcesinKuwaitisanopportunityforKuehne+Nagel,”saidAndreasMohr,thecompany’smanagingdirectorforKuwaitandIraq.Still,neitherthestate-run
B
Top: Kuwait Bay had shown significant potential
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BY SIMON WEST
Reuters news agency reported alSabah saying at the June event. “We always like to maintain spare capacity about 10 percent to 15 percent above
reakbulk movers keeping close tabs on opportunities in Kuwait will have had their interest piqued by comments from the head of the Kuwait Petroleum Corp. on plans to kick-start offshore drilling activity in territorial waters.
Higher upstream capacity would also ensure that Kuwait met any future rises in OPEC+ quotas, which were lifted by a collective 100,000 barrels per day, or b/d, from September.
Sheikh Nawaf Saud al-Sabah told reporters at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha that the country would be moving to its first offshore production as part of a wider plan to meet future oil demand.
KUWAIT LOOKS TO RESOURCESOFFSHORE
where we need to be just in case of supply disruptions around the world.”
The oil sector is the bedrock of Kuwait’s economy, accounting for 90 percent of its revenues. The Greater Burgan oilfield in southeast Kuwait is the country’s biggest asset and one of the world’s largest-producing fields with a capacity of 1.6 million b/d.
The nation also ranks ninth in the world for recoverable crude reserves, holding some 53 billion barrels, according to Rystad Energy. Little wonder, then, that hydrocarbons are the leading source of contracts for project“Mostlogistics.ofthe business in Kuwait is dependent on the oil and gas sector,” said Vipin Rajan, manager of services for business and project development at Kuwait-based heavy-lift specialist Al Bader Shipping. “There are a lot of projects in the pipeline. We are expect ing a lot of import shipments for these projects, especially on project, break bulk and bulk vessels.”
ENERGY UPDATE
for commercial hydrocarbon production. CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK
Gulf State Taps US-based Halliburton to Support Planned Buildout
“We are making the investments necessary to ensure that we can meet any new increases in terms of alloca tions and also in terms of demand,”
Tossetti also pointed to plans to further develop onshore resources, espe cially heavy oil reserves in the north of Kuwait.
Reuters reported in June that KPC was looking to borrow up to US$1 bil lion from international banks, including HSBC and JPMorgan, to be used for capital expenditure, including on oil and gas “Developmentprojects. of offshore produc tion – assuming reserves are found – should not face insurmountable tech nical problems,” Tossetti said. “But, like all major energy developments in Kuwait, there could be political obstacles if the parliament and the government disagree about the timing of offshore developments. Historically, there [have been] plenty of lower cost reserves onshore, so why worry about offshore where it is likely higher cost than onshore?”
ENERGY
CREDIT: KOC
Offshore exploration is a key initia tive in Kuwait’s 2040 oil investment strategy. The strategy’s main goal is to meet current and future demand “by achieving a sustainable crude oil pro duction capacity, including production from the partitioned zone.”
The Houston-based company and member of the Breakbulk Global Ship per Network was awarded an offshore drilling services contract by KOC in 2019 for six high-pressure, hightemperature exploration wells on two jack-up rigs in the Middle East Gulf.
Ex-KPC chief executive Hashem S. Hashem told the agency last year that output would be lifted through the com missioning of new gathering centers, the construction of water injection facili ties, the upgrade of existing production plants and the installation of two new facilities to boost light crude capacity.
UPDATE
ago as an area of neutral sovereignty, includes the 300,000 b/d offshore Khafji oilfield, operated by Al-Khafji Joint Operations, a venture between Saudi Aramco and Kuwait Gulf Oil Co., or KGOC, another subsidiary of KPC.Output at Khafji and other oil and gas fields located in the region are divided equally between the two nations.Paul Tossetti, executive director at S&P Global Commodity Insights, said a successful offshore drilling campaign would unlikely result in production before“Kuwaitmid-decade.didsome seismic work a few years ago and obtained a drill ing rig and will explore for oil,” the director said. If they find something, offshore oil production would not commence for a few years, probably post-2025.According to S&P, Kuwait’s cur rent production capacity is about 2.6 million b/d, with the neutral zone accounting for a further 100,000 to 200,000 b/d. The government is looking to raise capacity to about 3.5 million b/d by 2025, according to state news agency, Kuna.
The start-up of the first rig was slated for July 2020, and the second for January 2021.
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According to a release at the time, Halliburton would provide and manage drilling, fluids, wireline and perforating, well testing, coring, cementing, coiled tubing and all off shore logistical services. It would also supply the offshore rigs and supply vessels for the project.
A spokesperson at Halliburton told Breakbulk that the company was “excited to collaborate with the KOC to implement our integrated services to accelerate offshore development,” but declined to comment on whether work at the offshore rigs had begun.
Halliburton was awarded an offshore drilling services contract by KOC in 2019 for six high-pressure, hightemperature exploration wells on two jack-up rigs in the Middle East Gulf.
Oilfieldsoon.”services provider Hal liburton was also reluctant to provide further details.
The partitioned zone, a border region between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia created by the British 100 years
The work, reportedly delayed by the pandemic, was slated to begin in mid-2020 after seismic surveys to assess prospectivity in the Kuwait Bay had shown significant potential for commercial hydrocarbon production.
“We have been producing onshore for almost 90 years, and now we are moving on to offshore for the first time,” al-Sabah said in Doha. “We should have good news on that some time
KPC nor its subsidiary, the Kuwait Oil Co., or KOC, were able to pro vide any additional information on their offshore plans.
MOVING INTO OFFSHORE
A dispute earlier this year between Kuwaiti lawmakers and the govern ment, which culminated in the entire cabinet resigning, appears – for the time being at least – to have cooled, although Tossetti warned that political difficulties could still delay onshore and offshore oil development.InearlyAugust, Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nawaf Al Sabah, the eldest son of Kuwait’s ruling emir, formed a new government ahead of fresh elections, Kuna reported.
Shuaiba meanwhile serves as an
When complete, Al-Zour is expected to be one of the world’s larg est refineries, with a capacity to process 615,000 b/d of light export crude. The facility, owned by KPC subsidiary Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Co., or KIPIC, is slated for start-up by year-end.Large oil and gas construction projects are cyclical, and Kuwait has made some major investments over the last 10 years. At present we are in a low construction phase,” Mohr said. “We remain enthusiastic about these oppor tunities, not only for Kuwait’s growth, but also to showcase our engineering expertise, chartering solutions, risk assessments and logistics management expertise ensuring our customers’ oper ations are safe and seamless.”
in the maritime neutral zone between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The offshore field is expected to produce up to 1 bil lion cubic feet per day of natural gas and 84,000 b/d of condensate, accord ing to KuwaitKPC.is investing in downstream capacity as well, with projects such as the Al-Zour oil refinery complex south of Kuwait City boosting the nation’s fuel export capability.
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Buoyant oil prices and the loosening of OPEC+ quotas have significantly increased Kuwait’s economic outlook and its recovery from the pandemic.
Project logistics, meanwhile, can count on some solid infrastructure to support buildout.
Kuwait’s boasts two deep seawa ter ports – Shuwaikh, the Gulf state’s oldest and largest port located close to Kuwait City and about 40 kilome ters by road to the central oil and gas installations, and Shuaiba, located south of the capital.
Both are equipped to handle breakbulk destined for hydrocarbon projects, although Kuehne+Nagel’s managing director for Kuwait and Iraq, Andreas Mohr said Shuwaikh’s proximity to the capital and the dense industrial surroundings can limit the weight and dimension of oil and gas cargoes being discharged at the port.
Despite the political wrangling, some major onshore projects are mov ing forward, with Mohr pointing to KOC’s Jurassic oil and gas production facilities JPF-4 and JPF-5 in northern Kuwait, signed off in late 2021.
UPDATE
CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK
PORTS BREAKBULK MOVES
SUPPORT
ENERGY
The latest government is the fifth in two years, the news agency said.
ONSHORE PROJECTS STILL VIABLE
Kuehne+Nagel is also monitoring the development of the Durra gas field
“The location of the port is adjacent to some of the largest petro chemical complexes and refineries in Kuwait and the close proximity to the central oilfields – this makes Shuaiba the preferred port for project car goes,” said Mohr.
industrial port for breakbulk and bulk aggregates, and operates a small container terminal. Despite limited storage space, the facility’s infrastruc ture is suitable for roll-on, roll-off operations for heavy out-of-gauge cargo such as columns or reactors destined for the petrochemical indus try, as well as direct discharge from heavy-lift vessels.
The pace of diversification has been slow and higher oil prices have actually decreased the urgency the Kuwaiti government feels regarding the need to diversify.
Inland roads and bridges, as is the case in other Gulf Cooperation Coun cil, or GCC, member countries, are well-maintained, according to com panies speaking to Breakbulk, with the flat terrain and relatively short distance between ports and project sites ideal for transporting heavy-lift cargoes.“Given the land area for the coun try, it is easier to handle such cargo when compared to Europe or other similar parts of the world,” said Vivek Pawar, sales manager at Alghanim Transportation Logistics and Solu tions, or ATLAS, a Kuwait-based logistics provider that has moved heavy cargo for Bechtel, Fluor, Foster Wheeler and other global shippers.
Colombia-based Simon West is senior reporter for Breakbulk.
“The pace of diversification has been slow and higher oil prices have actually decreased the urgency the Kuwaiti government feels regarding the need to diversify,” Hawthorne said.“Other sectors in Kuwait’s econ omy include industrial manufacturing and services related to domestic con sumption, including financial services, but these pale in comparison to what oil and gas bring to the economy. The country will also struggle to diversify due to its reticence to aggressively recruit expatriates in its public and pri vate sector, compared with other GCC states like the UAE and Qatar.”
The Gulf state’s over-reliance on crude, meanwhile, has triggered efforts to diversify its industrial base.
In line with other members of the GCC, Kuwait has launched its own long-term initiative to pivot the econ omy away from oil and gas towards more economically and environmen tally sustainable sectors.
But Emily Hawthorne, senior Mid dle East and North Africa analyst at
Vision 2035, which will usher in a ‘New Kuwait,’ is seeking to transform the country into a regional financial and trade hub by boosting the role
CREDIT: KOC
risk intelligence consultancy RANE, said that a resurgence in oil markets could hamper development.
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Still, buoyant oil prices and the loosening of OPEC+ quotas have significantly improved Kuwait’s eco nomic outlook and, as S&P Global Commodity Insights’ Tossetti pointed out, its recovery from the pandemic. Such a crucial resource is expected to provide breakbulk and project cargo with a steady source of work for years to come. BB
Breakbulk movers will be buoyed by the government’s target of sourcing 15 percent of electricity generation from renewables by the end of the decade, with plans in place to rapidly expand capacity through a series of utility-scale wind, solar and hydrogen facilities.
of the private sector and luring more foreign investment towards non-oil expansion.Breakbulk movers will be buoyed by the government’s target of sourc ing 15 percent of electricity generation from renewables by the end of the decade, with plans in place to rapidly expand capacity through a series of utility-scale 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 gigawatts of renewable capacity by 2030.
A WORLD BEYOND OIL
Some 1.5 million bifacial photo voltaic panels, supplied by China’s Jolywood, were installed across a 13 million-square-meter plot adjacent to ACWA Power’s 1.5-gigawatt (GW) Ibri natural gas-fired IPP, about 200 kilo meters west of capital city Muscat.
produced from renewable sources by 2025, and 30 percent by the end of the decade. Just four years ago, it was almost“Ibrizero.IIis a remarkable achieve ment that delivers on the national priorities set by Oman Vision 2040, which entail environmental conserva tion, utilization of natural resources, the development of governorates and the integration of the private sector,” said Yaqoob bin Saif Al-Kiyumi, CEO of OPWP.“IbriII will be a turning point for launching similar projects in the field of renewable Accordingenergy.”toOPWP, the next solar plants to be installed will be the Manah I and Manah II IPPs in
Gulf State Targets Five-Fold Increase in Renewable Energy Capacity
produced from renewable sources by 2025. CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK 74 BREAKBULK MAGAZINE www.breakbulk.com SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022
T
he launch in January of the 500-megawatt (MW) Ibri II solar power plant in Oman’s northwestern Al Dhahirah governorate marked a major milestone in the sultanate’s ambitious plans for expanding its renewable energy capac ity.
OMAN GREENERPLOTSFUTURE
Taking just 13 months to build, the US$417 million plant, developed by a three-member consortium led by Saudi’s ACWA Power, is Oman’s first solar independent power project, or IPP, to connect to the national grid, and the first to be inaugurated under the country’s new national renewable energy program.
BY SIMON WEST UPDATE
The consortium will produce clean electricity over a 15-year period for Oman Power and Water Procure ment Co., or OPWP, the state-owned agency responsible for ensuring power and water production meets domestic demand.Asamajor plank of its Vision 2040 policy to pivot the economy away from fossil fuels and towards more sus tainable sectors, Oman aims to have 11 percent of its electricity demand
ENERGY
Top: Oman aims to have 11 percent of its electricity demand
UPDATE
“Wind speeds in these places are equivalent to those seen at inland European sites with a substantial number of wind turbines in opera tion. Wind speeds are maximum in the summer months, which corre spond to peak periods of electricity demand in Oman.”
The analyst noted in its report summary that financial incentives such as the government-led subsidy for rooftop solar for residential customers and support for foreign investment could spur renewable energy uptake in the country.
InterContinental Energy and EnerTech, for example, are develop ing what is being billed as the largest renewable fuels production facility in the Middle East. The US$30 billion green hydrogen venture is planning to deploy 25 GW of renewable energy capacity – equivalent to thousands of wind turbines and solar panels –across a 6,500-square-kilometer tract of land in Al Wusta and Dhofar.
The construction of these and other planned projects would lift Oman’s renewable capacity from 500 MW this year to 2.7 GW by 2027, OPWP said in its latest 7-year outlook statement.“There is huge potential for project logistics,” said Salim Ahmed, CEO of Oman Integrated Logistics Ser vices. “We see an aggressive approach towards alternative green energy solu tions by the authorities, and there is no doubt you will see Oman leading the GCC and the region in implement ing more renewable projects in the future.”Blessed with year-round sunshine and strong winds ideal for deploy ing world-scale renewable projects, and strategically located between key European and Asian markets with a coastline stretching 3,165 miles from the northern Hormuz Strait to the border with Yemen, the sultanate is ready to capitalize on its clean energy potential.According to Maryam Ahmed Al Nofli, lecturer at the University of Technology and Applied Sciences –Shinas, Oman has one of the highest levels of solar energy density in the world. It also boasts a significant wind regime, especially along the southern Arabian coast and mountains north of Salalah.“The available solar energy in Oman has the ability to supply enough electricity to cover the domestic electrical needs of the country while exporting power as well,” Al Nofli told Breakbulk
“We see an aggressive approach authorities,energyalternativetowardsgreensolutionsbytheandthereisnodoubtyouwillseeOmanleadingtheGCCandtheregioninimplementingmorerenewableprojectsinthefuture.”
WIND FARM AMBITIONS
Favorable environmental factors are also luring developers of green ammonia and hydrogen projects.
central Ad Dakhiliyah governorate. A reported US$600 million has been allocated for the two 500-MW facili ties, slated to be up and running by the end of 2024.
An additional US$300 million has been earmarked for wind energy projects with a combined installed capacity of 300 MW at Jalan Bani Bu Ali in South Sharqiyah governorate and at Duqm in southern Al Wusta governorate.Oman’sfirst utility-scale wind farm, the Dhofar Wind Power Project, was brought online by Abu Dhabibased developer Masdar in 2019. The 50-MW plant in the southern most Dhofar governorate close to the breakbulk-handling port of Salalah comprises 13 GE-made turbines.
ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SOURCES EXPLORED
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ammonia.“Thestrategic importance (of diversifying) and (Oman’s) geo graphical location make it feasible to harness renewable energy technolo gies on both small and large scales for further economic development. It not only helps to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, but helps to create a cleaner and sustainable environment,” Al Nofli said.In clean energy analyst Bloom bergNEF’s latest Climatescope report, an assessment of energy transition investment opportuni ties, Oman was ranked 15th among emerging nations in the power sector, the highest-placed Gulf Cooperation Council member.
ENERGY
The project would produce an estimated 1.8 million tonnes per year of zero-carbon green hydrogen, which could be used as feedstock for up to 10 million tonnes per year of green
SUPPORT
Real GDP rose by 3 percent last year, according to the International Monetary Fund, with growth of 5.6 percent projected for 2022, the highest rate for a decade. “Favorable oil prices and continued fiscal consolidation efforts are expected to generate sub stantial fiscal and external surpluses, and support higher growth,” the IMF said in a June report. BB
Oman’s strong post-pandemic rebound, helped by the higher oil price environment, could further support industrial buildout.
At Duqm, meanwhile, stateowned Oman Oil Marketing late last year launched a new bunker terminal to meet demand from the grow ing number of vessels being lured towards the port.
WATER, EVERYWHEREWATER
DEEPWATER HUBS
CREDIT: KRS
Oman has set its sights on becom ing one of the region’s major shipping and logistics Breakbulkhubs.movers can already rely on several deepwater ports capable of handling industrial-sized project cargo, such as Duqm and Salalah on the Arabian coast and Sohar on the northernUpgradescoast.and expansions at all three facilities will boost capacity and improve cargo flows even further.
Khimji Ramdas Shipping has supported the buildout of several world-scale water distribution and desalination projects, handling more than 350,000 cubic meters of ductile iron and mild steel piping, butterfly valves and other heavy components.
Khimji Ramdas’ moves a rig from the United Arab Emirates to Oman.
At Sohar, Oman’s second-largest deep-sea port, breakbulk handler C. Steinweg Oman is adding 27 hectares of storage space to the port’s general cargo terminal to meet rising demand for minerals and other bulk items.
Duqm lies within the Special Economic Zone at Duqm, or SEZAD, home to some of Oman’s largest energy projects and the most likely site for large-scale solar and wind energy“Youbuildout.seelots of project cargo happening through Duqm, because that is where you have most of the plants. The oil plants are there, the hydrogen plant is going to be there – most of the big mega-projects are happening in that area,” said Salim Ahmed, CEO of Oman Integrated Logistics Services.
Sohar is seeing a rise in dedicated general cargo handling. CREDIT: ASYAD
The most recent to break ground is the Barka V Independent Water Project, or IWP, located about 50 kilometers west of Muscat in South Al Batinah governorate. Developer GS Inima, a unit of Korean EPC contrac tor GS Engineering and Construction, said Barka V would have a capacity of 100,000 cubic meters per day, with operations scheduled to begin in mid2024.Barka IV, Oman’s largest desalina tion plant with a capacity of 281,000 cubic meters per day, began operations in 2019.“Certainly this is one of the most important sectors for our company. With Oman’s pledge to update and improve the country’s distribution networks by 2040, the sector will
Colombia-based Simon West is senior reporter for Breakbulk.
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Another sector set for expansion in Oman’s Vision 2040 plans is water desalination.Whilearid landscapes and basking sunshine provide perfect conditions for solar buildout, the lack of freshwa ter sources combined with aggressive industrialization and population growth is placing huge strain on the country’s ability to produce potable water.Ina bid to meet future demand, OPWP has plans for a string of new, large-scale desalination plants and distribution networks, a construction drive that is expected to provide break bulk and project cargo with a raft of new cargo-carrying opportunities.
definitely be a major contributor in the coming years,” said Arijit Das, head of inland logistics and shipping at Omanibased breakbulk specialist Khimji Ramdas“EveryShipping.project (in the government’s plans) will have different layers of implementation, starting from the con struction phase to the setup of the main distribution pipelines and pumping sta tion build up, to the network of smaller dimension pipelines to ensure reach of the purified water to each and every household. This will lead to immense potential for logistics.”
ENERGY UPDATE
CSO, a unit of C. Steinweg Group, has a long-term concession to handle all breakbulk, project cargo, dry cargo and roll-on, roll-off stevedoring oper ations at Sohar.
Top:TRANSITIONENERGY
From the start, heavy-lift con tractors faced significant challenges with the delivery of some construc tion equipment from abroad affected by the pandemic, resulting in some equipment being brought in by air transport before Laos closed its borders. With a series of lockdown measures in Laos that caused difficul ties in equipment and material supply, contractors had to actively coordinate with project managers and relevant government departments to make sure that construction could be carried out smoothly.Asalead
CMC, in a joint venture with two of the largest construction companies in Thailand and Vietnam, chose Italy’s ATB Riva Calzoni as a partner for the project, signing an engineering, pro curement and construction contract for the entire hydro-mechanical scope of work of the dam under construction in the province of Bolikhamxay, Laos.
D
BY THOMAS TIMLEN
The hydroelectric plant, built on the Nam Kading river, a tributary of the Mekong, will produce power that will be distributed by Edl-Electricite’ du Laos. Power will be exported to Thailand on behalf of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand.
The Nam Theun 1 Hydropower project, one of the largest hydropower projects under construction in the world, is an ambitious US$1.3 billion joint venture involving three partners; Phonesack Group with a 60 percent stake, Egco with a 25 percent stake, and Electricite Du Laos (EDL) with a 15 percent stake. It is designed to bring additional renewable power to Laos and neighboring Thailand. The project, lasting 56 months, involves the con struction of a dam of 4 million cubic meters, which will power a hydroelec tric power station with an installed capacity of 650 megawatts and design discharge of 514 m³/sec. The latest fore casts call for commercial operations to commence in August.
For the Nam Theun 1 Hydropower project, a major challenge was the transportation of 50 pipe sections, known as penstocks. A penstock is a sluice for directing the flow of water
contractor on the project, ATB Riva Calzoni’s hydropower expe rience gained from projects such as the Ituango project in Colombia and the Nachtigal project in Cameroon was put to good use.
iscussions related to China’s Belt and Road, or BRI, initiative generally focus on regional transportation infrastructure and the respective seg ments of the supply chain; roads, rail, tunnels and bridges linked to seaports and the multiple logistics hubs along the way. Less attention is given to the sustainable renewable energy-generat ing initiatives associated with the BRI.
Tight Fit for Laos Hydropower Task
A project in Laos, the Nam Theun 1 Hydropower project, is one such BRI initiative developed alongside the China-Laos Railway, both falling within the Lancang-Mekong Coopera tion Economic Development Belt.
penstock fabrication facility. CREDIT: ATB GROUP 78 BREAKBULK MAGAZINE www.breakbulk.com SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022
CASE STUDY
CHALLENGES FROM THE START
POWER TO THE PROJECT MOVERS
The
CALLING ON SPECIALISTS
Any delays in navigating the route or any damage to the pipe sections would have serious repercussions for the project schedule. This was another factor that led ATB Riva Cal zoni to enlist specialist support from Mammoet to ensure this risk was min imized and work was kept on track.
Comprehensive planning was key to the project’s success. Mammoet recognized that while the weights involved were not particularly chal lenging, the restricted dimensions of the tunnels required a detailed plan and highly skilled self-propelled mod ular transporter, or SPMT, operators to execute.Mammoet’s extensive in-region experience proved crucial, ensuring that necessary permits were obtained for the 3 kilometer journey across varying gradients and qualities of terrain. Preparatory work was then performed for the sizeable cargo to be ready for transportation via 16 lines of SPMT.Already a formidable job, it was made all the more challenging by
to the hydroelectric station. For this project, each penstock section mea sured up to 10 meters in diameter with a weight of up to 50 tonnes. These had to be moved from their onsite fabrica tion site into position within the dam walls. The fabrication site was located 3 kilometers from the installation site and the penstocks had to be moved across a route that included several steep gradients and through a 400meter tunnel which proved to be an extremely tight fit.
ATB Riva Calzoni’s hydropower site manager Gerardo Ruotolo found the tunnel to be the most daunting challenge, which benefited from proj ect specialist’s Mammoet’s expertise.
CREDIT: ATB GROUP
Gerardo Ruotolo
CASE STUDY
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Ruotolo explained that the com pany “recognized that the expertise of a heavy transportation specialist
was needed to handle the movement of the pipe sections from the fabrication yard.” He added that “the knowledge and capabilities Mammoet brought have been extremely important in avoiding any significant issues in this high-risk part of the project.”
“A significant challenge in which Mammoet assisted ATB Riva Calzoni is related to the Adit 1 tunnel. A sec tion of this access tunnel had a restriction, due to civil works con straints, which made it difficult to transport the 10 meter diam eter front.”pipesofingthisMammoetpenstock.solvedissueallowthepassagethepenstocktothework
Ruotolo further explained that the logistics aspects of the project on-site, including the location of the penstock fabrication yard, the route for mov ing the penstocks to the access tunnel and the tunnel dimensions were all defined at an earlier design stage by the civil works designer and ATB Riva Calzoni’s technical department. Mam moet experts were brought in at a later stage, once all the above aspects had been defined, to develop the most suit able solution based on the actual site conditions.Onceonline, Nam Theun 1 will deliver clean energy for more than 500,000 homes and play a key role in the region’s energy transition. Building a hydropower plant on this scale is a complex task, with components needed at their installation location intact and on time if the schedule is not to be impacted.
The Adit 1 tunnel proved to be a tight fit for the cargoes.
The Nam Theun 1 Hydropower project is the first project in which ATB Riva Calzoni and Mammoet have cooperated, although it likely won’t be the last. “For sure,” Ruotolo said, “there is interest in cooperating with Mammoet in future projects, given the positive experience faced in Nam Theun 1 Hydropower project.”
ATB Riva Calzoni
ing the elements and demonstrating a real test of close SPMT control to ensure that construction of Nam Theun could continue as planned. The hydropower plant project is in the final stages of development, with all the construction work being car ried out in line with international standards.AsLaos is pursuing plans to build dozens of hydropower dams on the Mekong River and its tributaries, additional opportunities are on the
very precise in how we moved through the tun nels, frame,requirednentsoftransportationcompleteddamage.”essaryspeedinsmallmakingadjustmentsdirectionorwherenectoavoidMammoettheall50compowithinthetimeovercom
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adverse weather conditions. Heavy rain significantly increased the risk of the oversized but relatively lightweight cargo causing the SPMTs to slip or lose traction. This again highlighted the importance of Mammoet’s local expe rience. Having worked under similar conditions in other countries in the region, the team was able to identify the hazards presented by the rain and to plan ahead to avoid accidents.
horizon for the contractors engaged with their planning and construction as well as for the heavy-lift providers needed to move the massive compo nents in Ruotoloplace.said that ATB Riva Calzoni is working on several hydro power projects on all five continents, as the contractor for steel penstocks and hydromechanical equipment. “In particular, according to our experi ence, hydropower has a significant role in renewable energy develop ment in Asia and Africa. In the other continents, hydropower development is driven by pumped storage hydro power projects which are considered the most important energy storage technology and currently guarantees 90 percent of energy storage capacity of the world.” BB
“Using SPMTs and experienced operators gave us the ability to be
Thomas Timlen is a Singapore-based analyst, researcher, writer and spokesperson with 31 years of expe rience addressing the regulatory and operational issues that impact all sectors of the maritime industry.
TUNNEL VISION
Penstocks positioned in the dam structure. CREDIT: ATB GROUP STUDY
Mammoet’s skills were also put to the test in navigating the restricted space of the tunnel. “When moving large components in such a confined space there is a high risk that either the item or the surrounding tunnel will be damaged,” Thanapon Varin tree, sales manager at Mammoet, said, “which in turn can lead to pro longed project delays while this is put right. At Nam Theun this was made even more difficult by heavy rain increasing the risk of the cargo slip ping when moving up or downhill.
VarintreeThanapon
CASE
Mammoet
Maersk also said it has launched a new product, Maersk Project Logis tics. MPL would add to Maersk’s existing project logistics services, and would focus on solution design, spe cial cargo transportation and project management services.
CREDIT: MARTIN BENCHER
A.P. Moller - Maersk has reached an agreement to acquire project forwarder Martin Bencher Group, as the Danish shipping giant seeks to strengthen its project logistics han dlingThecapacity.deal,worth US$61 million post-IFRS 16 lease liabilities, is sub ject to regulatory approvals, and would likely close by the end of this year or first quarter of next, Maersk said.Aarhus-headquartered Martin Bencher, founded in 1997, is an assetlight logistics provider focusing on project logistics for oil and gas, ship building, pulp and paper, renewables, power and other industries.
PROJECT LOGISTICS SERVICES
The purchase is subject to regulatory approvals.
“Martin Bencher will be an excel lent fit to Maersk and our integrator strategy, strengthening our ability to provide project logistics to our global clients,” said Karsten Kildahl, regional managing director in Europe for Maersk.PeterThorsoe Jensen, CEO of Martin Bencher, said the company was “thrilled” to become a part of Maersk and an “ideal fit” for its cli ents.“Together with Maersk, we will have the scale, commitment and capabilities to handle the entire logis tics scope of work for clients around the world – as well as expand into new industries,” Jensen said.
MAERSK TO ACQUIRE MARTIN BENCHER GROUP
Breakbulk Events & Media’s biweekly BreakbulkONE newsletter keeps the industry connected between issues of Breakbulk. Here’s a selection of recent subscriber favorites.
The company is present in 31 offices worldwide in 23 countries and boasts a 170-strong workforce.
“Together with the proposed acquisition of Martin Bencher, this will enable Maersk to significantly accelerate its project logistics capa bilities and develop an unparalleled integrated offering to serve existing and future customers, also within new industries,” Maersk said. BBONE
Both Maersk and Martin Bencher will be exhibiting at Breakbulk Americas 2022, Sept. 27-29 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, register/BATC0922/landing.asp)(https://www.xpressreg.net/Texas.
Also Announces Launch of Maersk Project Logistics
82 BREAKBULK MAGAZINE www.breakbulk.com SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022
Forwarders Join Forces for Enel’s Windpeshi Project BREAKBULKONE
Murilo Caldana, project director at FOX Brasil, told Breakbulk the two forwarders had been cooperating on different projects for the last 10 years.
“Both companies are quite experts on their activities, so all went well and as planned,” said Caldana, who is also president of the interna tional Heavy Lift Group.
Register for the conference 2022-agenda-unveiled.Articles/breakbulk-americas-https://americas.breakbulk.com/year’sBATC0922/landing.asphttps://www.xpressreg.net/register/atForthelowdownonallofthissessionsinHouston,goto
The 74-meter blades were loaded at the Port of Pecem in Brazil’s north ern Ceara department and shipped to the Port of Brisa in La Guajira. FOX was responsible for the loading, securing and sea freight at Pecem, while Dako was responsible for sea freight, discharging the components and delivering to the Windpeshi site.
The Windpeshi project is one of three Colombian wind farms being developed by Enel Green Power, a division of Italy’s Enel Group. The 205-megawatt project will comprise 41 turbines, manufactured by Ger many’s Nordex Group.
Loading at the Port of Pecem in Brazil’s northern Ceara department.
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Sao Paulo-based forwarder FOX Brasil and Germany’s Dako World wide recently teamed up to deliver a set of 12 turbine blades for the Windpeshi wind project in Colombia’s northernmost La Guajira department.
FOX BRASIL, DAKO WORLDWIDE DELIVER BLADES
CREDIT: FOX BRASIL
Power generation in Latin America is among the topics to be discussed in a series of main stage panel sessions at Breakbulk Ameri cas 2022, Sept. 27-29 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Hous ton. BBONE
This year’s report provides details related to product advancements, employee health and wellness programs, and manufacturing initia tives. For example, Franklin Electric increased its power usage from renewable energy sources by 10 per cent, through its operational efforts and global process standardization.
BREAKBULKONE
Franklin Electric reported signifi cant investment in its global Goal Zero safety campaign, spending more than
the safe and effective movement of wastewater, and for environmentally safe and sustainable handling of liquid fuels.”Franklin Electric produced the report following the guidelines set forth in the Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Reporting Standards and the Institutional Shareholder Services Environmental and its Social Disclosure QualityScore Framework. These standards creates a common language for organizations to report on its sustainability impacts in a con sistent and credible way.
84 BREAKBULK MAGAZINE www.breakbulk.com SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022
Building Pipelines Connecting FPSOs Back to Shore
said Jon Landes, president of subsea at TechnipFMC. “We remain proud of our dedicated Guyanese employees and are committed to the continued development and expansion of local capabilities.”Injustafew years, Guyana has emerged as the world’s most exciting hotspots for E&P.
The Liza Destiny and Liza Unity floating production storage and offloading vessels, or FPSOs, supplied by Dutch vessel builder SBM Offshore, are producing about 340,000 barrels of oil per day. With more wells slated for start-up, ExxonMobil is targeting output of 800,000 b/d by 2025.
“I am proud of the progress that we have made in offering transparency to our environmental impact,” said Franklin Electric CEO Gregg C. Seng stack. “The results in our 2022 report speak to the combined efforts of our employees around the globe, whose work creates the products that allow for safe and reliable access to water, the filtration and treatment of water,
In November 2021, TechnipFMC won a “large” contract – deemed to be between US$500 million and US$1 billion – to deliver the subsea produc tion system for ExxonMobil’s Yellowtail development, also part of the Sta broekPumpingBlock. at Yellowtail is expected to begin in 2025.
The infrastructure will deliver asso ciated gas from the Liza oilfield, part of the prolific 6.6 million-acre offshore Stabroek Block, to a gas-fired power plant that will supply electricity to the local“Thecommunity.gas-to-energy project is another example of how we are help ing deliver the energy the world needs, and we are thrilled to be sup porting another project in Guyana,”
FRANKLIN ELECTRIC’S ESG EFFORTS SHOW PROGRESS
24,000 hours training employees on health and safety best practices with the goal of zero work-related injuries. In addition, from a product standpoint, several product advancements are helping customers become more sus tainable, including its MagForce High Efficiency Motors that significantly lower customer energy usage and related operating costs.
TechnipFMC has been awarded another contract by ExxonMobil for a gas-to-energy project offshore Guy ana.The “significant” contract, subject to final sanction, is for the engineering, procurement, construction and instal lation of subsea risers and pipelines connecting production from the Liza Destiny and Liza Unity floating produc tion, storage and offloading vessels back to shore.
For TechnipFMC, a significant con tract is between US$75 million and US$250 million, it said.
TechnipFMC, with its operational headquarters in Houston, operates a fleet of 18 vessels, including div ing support vessels, construction support vessels and pipelayers. The company is organized into two segments – subsea and surface tech nologies.TechnipFMC and ExxonMobil are members of the Breakbulk Global Shipper Network, a worldwide net work of shippers involved in the engineering, manufacturing and pro duction of project cargo.
A reception will be held for net work members on Sept. 27 at the BGSN Lounge at Breakbulk Americas 2022, taking place Sept. 27-29 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas. BBONE
To register for this year’s confer ence, go to bgsngonet/register/BATC0922/landing.asphttps://www.xpressreg.TofindoutmoreabouttheBGSN,tohttps://breakbulk.com/page/
Franklin Electric said its com mitment to its initiatives and goals resulted in Newsweek naming the company to its 2022 list of America’s Most Responsible Companies. BBONE
Boosts Renewable Energy Usage by 10%
Franklin Electric Co. Inc., which produces systems and components for moving water and fuel, released its third annual Sustainability Report in an effort to provide transparency, insight and data related to the company’s environmental, social and gover nance, or ESG, initiatives and goals.
TECHNIPFMC SECURES SUBSEA CONTRACT IN GUYANA
“The graving dock at our Sturgeon Bay facility is a national asset, critical in the repair and construction efforts for the Great Lakes commercial Jones Act fleet, as well as portions of vessels for the Department of Defense. This year we are using the graving dock to con struct the largest LNG barge ever built in the U.S.,” the spokesperson said.
ExxonMobil has made another two major oil discoveries off the coast of Guyana, taking the total number of finds at the prolific offshore region to more than 25.
Since 2008, MARAD’s Small Ship yard Grant Program has awarded more than US$282 million to nearly 300 shipyards across 32 U.S. states and ter ritories. BBONE
reducing energy consumption by up to 248 tonnes of CO 2
The discoveries at Seabob-1 and Kiru-Kiru-1, part of the 6.6 million-acre Stabroek Block, are ExxonMobil’s sixth and seventh in Guyana this year, the U.S. energy giant said in a filing.
EXXONMOBIL MAKES TWO NEW OIL FINDS IN GUYANA
A reception will be held for network members on Sept. 27 at the BGSN Lounge at Breakbulk Americas 2022, taking place Sept. 27-29 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Hous ton, Texas. BBONE
“Small businesses are the lifeblood of the U.S. economy, and small ship yards play a critical role in America’s maritime industry, helping us get the goods we depend on every day,” Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a “Thesestatement.grantswill help modernize small shipyards in communities across
In Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, Fin cantieri Marine Group will receive US$1.2 million to support the modern ization of a 1970s-era graving dock pump system at its Bay Shipbuilding facility.Aspokesperson for Fincantieri told Breakbulk the upgrade would improve productivity and reliability of the pump system, while saving time and
MARAD GRANTS $20 MILLION TO SMALL US SHIPYARDS
The U.S. Transport Department’s Maritime Administration, or MARAD, has dished out grants worth US$19.6 million to help small shipyards in the U.S. invest in infrastructure and equip ment and boost productivity.
In Newport, Virginia, Fairlead Boat works was allocated US$900,000 to help it acquire a new 160-tonne rough terrain crane.
The funds, drawn from the Small Shipyard Grant Program and allocated to 24 shipyards across 19 states, will also help expand employment oppor tunities and strengthen the domestic maritime industry, MARAD said.
The administration will be exhibit ing at Breakbulk Americas 2022, Sept. 27-29 at the George R. Brown Conven tion Center in Houston. You can meet the team in Hall A&B, Stand H01.
Another 98 feet of similar-quality sandstone was encountered at the Kiru-Kiru-1 well during drilling in 5,760 feet of water using the Stena DrillMAX Drilling operations at Kiru-Kiru are still underway.ExxonMobil, alongside partners Hess and CNOOC, made its first off shore Guyana discovery – Liza-1 – in
Register for this year’s conference at https://breakbulk.com/page/bgsnBATC0922/landing.asphttps://www.xpressreg.net/register/LearnmoreabouttheBGSNat
the country, creating and protecting local jobs, strengthening America’s maritime industry and securing our economicAmongfuture.”thebeneficiaries are Bay Marine Boatworks in Richmond, California, awarded US$875,968 to support the acquisition of a 100-tonne marine travel lift and a 60-tonne selfpropelled vessel transporter.
Register for the conference BATC0922/landing.asp.https://www.xpressreg.net/register/at
BREAKBULKONE
South American Country a Leading Crude Hotspot
www.breakbulk.com BREAKBULK MAGAZINE 85
In little more than a decade, Guyana has emerged as one of the world’s most exciting hotspots for offshore crude exploration, with estimated recoverable resources of more than 11 billion barrels of oilWithequivalent.thelikely start-up of the Payara and Yellowtail projects in 2023 and 2025, respectively, crude oil at the Sta broek block could be flowing at a rate of more than 800,000 b/d within three years.
Additional exploration wells are also planned for this year, ExxonMobil said.The company, which last month reported a record second quarter net income of US$17.9 billion, is also the operator of offshore Guyana’s Canje and Kaieteur ExxonMobilblocks.isamember of the Breakbulk Global Shipper Network, a worldwide network of shippers involved in the engineering, manufac turing and production of project cargo.
According to the administra tion, more than 100,000 people are employed in small U.S. shipyards.
2015. The well began producing in late 2019.“ExxonMobil and its partners continue to accelerate exploration, development and production activi ties for the benefit of all stakeholders, including the people of Guyana,” said Liam Mallon, president of ExxonMobil Upstream Co. “The resources we are investing in and discovering offshore Guyana will provide safe, secure energy for global markets for decades to come.”
Federal Funds to Strengthen Domestic Maritime
Some 131 feet of hydrocarbon-bearinghigh-qualitysandstone was encountered at the Seabob-1 well dur ing drilling in 4,660 feet of water by the Stena Carron drill ship.
CHILECOLOMBIACOSTARICADOMINICANREP.ECUADORELSALVADORGUATEMALAHONDURAS MEXICONICARAGUAPANAMAPARAGUAY PERUUNITEDSTATESURUGUAYVENEZUELABOLIVIAARGENTINA
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US$%% BN-10-15-20-25-30-10-20-30-40-500102030-6-4-2024681012-505101520 36.1 50.9 81.7 75.5 2930.0 672 102.5 74.3 -616 -846 -1030 -1023.3 AMERICAS ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 2020-2023 Inflation rates throughout the Americas reflect historic global inflation, with Argentina and Venezuela in the extreme. INFLATION FORECAST Current account balances are the difference between a given nation’s imported and exported goods, services and transfers and are an indicator of foreign trade trends. CURRENT ACCOUNT FORECAST After a bold rebound in 2021, economists forecast a significant drop in GDP across the Americas through 2023. 2020 2021 2022* 2023* GDP FORECAST Source: Consensus Economics, www.consensuseconomics.com *Forecast
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CHILECOLOMBIACOSTARICADOMINICANREP.ECUADORELSALVADORGUATEMALAHONDURAS MEXICONICARAGUAPANAMAPARAGUAY PERUUNITEDSTATESURUGUAYVENEZUELABOLIVIAARGENTINA
www.projectfreight.net BRINGING WORLDS TOGETHER • Exclusive Membership (one member per Country) • Project Freight Management Platform (premium) • PFN Office360 cloud environment • PFN Meet (free to use for members) • Educational materials for your staff • Mobile apps for Cargo & Ops inspections • Annual face 2 face meetings • Driven by our Board of Advisors ( BoA) • Includes membership ofRenewable Energy Project Logistics Alliance (REPLA)
PROJECTCARGO&HEAVYLIFTSUPTO1800TONS OPTIMIZEDTRUCKEXITFORWINDMILLBLADES&TOWERS WIND,OFFSHORE&BREAKBULKCARGOESHANDLING 730METRESQUAYLENGTH EXCELLENTLOCATION&FACILITIES Waalhavenn.z.4 3087BLRotterdam P.O.Box55092 3008EBRotterdam Portnumber2157 TELEPHONE +31(0)104299433 FAX +31(0)104290261 E-MAIL office@rhb.nl WEB www.rhb.nl ISPSCERTIFIED LiftingyourcargoesfasterAEO-FCERTIFIED shorecranesupto208tons stevedoring&warehousingrotterdam
