November 17 - Breakbulk Events has announced that Susan Oatway, senior consultant at Drewry Shipping Consultants, will deliver the opening keynote address at the first annual Breakbulk South America Congress, Dec. 6-7, 2011, in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

In her speech, "Multipurpose Fleet Outlook," Oatway will examine the position of multipurpose vessels and fleet development within the slowly recovering general cargo market. Her keynote will provide a global trade outlook with forecasts for medium-term demand and sustainable fleet renewal.

South America is enjoying a historic run of stability and steady growth that is pushing the cargo and logistics industries like never before. Regional leader Brazil has quadrupled its trade in the last decade to become the ninth-largest economy in the world, with forecasts to jump to No. 5 by 2020.

Following the discovery of significant new oil fields and the advent of more than 160 new windmill farms during the next two years, project cargo is in great demand in Brazil. Colombia, another emerging star, is experiencing its largest investment in infrastructure in decades as its oil and mining sectors boom. But these and other South American emerging markets continue to faces big transportation challenges associated with poor infrastructure and supply chain links.

Breakbulk South America joins the highly successful Breakbulk Events group of annual conferences worldwide that bring together top executives in the breakbulk and project cargo transportation sectors. Panels at the inaugural event will discuss issues such as cabotage growth potential, use of public ports versus private terminals, the boom in offshore development, and project cargo opportunities in the mining, energy and construction sectors. To learn more about the conference, please visit http://breakbulkevents.com/?section=breakbulk_south_america_2011

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