October 21 - This year's Breakbulk Americas Transportation Conference and Exhibition in Houston saw record levels of attendees and exhibitors.

More than 3,800 attendees and nearly 220 exhibitors were present at this year's event which included a Leadership Summit of industry executives who reviewed compliance issues, a sold-out Breakbulk Education Day for 120 students, a charity golf tournament benefiting the Houston Seafarers, a tour of the Port of Houston and two days of programme sessions and keynote speakers addressing industry issues and forecasts.

HLPFI publisher, Peter Edwards expressed his delight with the reception his team got at the event. Edwards says that: "The Breakbulk Americas event is well-established, very well run and a must-attend event for our magazine as we see to gather business intelligence for our readers."

Keynote speakers at the conference included David Hammerle, principal vice president at Bechtel Corp, Susan Oatway, senior consultant for Drewry Shipping Consultants and Robert Drew, general manager of logistics, Tata Steel International.

Besides forecasts for capital projects, multipurpose fleets and steel shipping, industry executives discussed important breakbulk and project cargo issues ranging from trends in the energy market and evolving contract strategies to solutions for US surface transportation project cargo restrictions and the changing role of freight forwarders.

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