January 28 - At this week Breakbulk Asia Conference and Exhibition in Singapore, Goldman Sachs (Asia) regional transportation research executive director Thomas Kim said that China's expected growth rate of 11.4 percent for the year and a shift in trading

He added that for the breakbulk business, 2009 was still a good year for most of the players, although he predicts a falling off in demand as projects get completed and the next round of contracts takes time to be awarded. 

Kim sees the BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China - as being of most potential, with China and India standing out as the economies that will lead the growth this year.

"Growth in China will be underpinned by both ongoing domestic economic expansion but also a recovery in exports," he said .

More of China's exports are going direct to their destination markets as finished goods rather than semi-finished products and trade between China and resource rich nations is growing. "This is important for shipping because it will not only simply strong volume growth but tonne-miles will grow because voyage distances are lengthening," he noted.

In India, it's all about power production, with some USD80 billion of power projects planned in the next five years, claims Nailesh Gandhi, director of Express Transport, with a significant proportion emanating from Chinese companies. Interestingly, engineering contractors from China are also improving and more heavy lift cargoes might be seen moving from China to developing nations said Foster Wheeler Power Group Asia COO Mark Garvey.

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