German businesspeople seem less confident in prospects for the future and their nervousness may impact project cargo and heavy lift operators in the coming year. Think tank Ifo has noted that for a second consecutive month, German business confidence fell

With its smokestack industries, Germany generates considerable export traffic in heavy machinery and manufactured goods which are a profitable trade for project forwarders and shipping lines. Any weakening of German output may bring about a new expression: 'when Germany sneezes, the world catches a cold'.

This comes at a time when slower economic growth in China and the bailout in Cyprus have underlined the fragile global economic environment, while some significant German firms, including BASF, Bosch, and Daimler have posted downbeat financial results.

This week's Friday Flyer is sponsored by Broekman Project Services, located in the Port of Rotterdam, which offers a total solution for handling and assembly of project cargoes - www.broekman-group.com/bps

In the corporate world

Some 50 companies from the Hamburg port, transport and logistics sectors are to move far inland in June to showcase under a 'Gateway Hamburg' banner at Transport Logistic 2013 in Munich. HLPFI will be making its debut appearance with a booth at the show. Bowhead Transportation and Crowley Maritime Services have formed a joint venture to provide maritime services in the chilly Alaskan Arctic under the name of UIC Bowhead-Crowley. Bigge Crane and Rigging got its chequebook out to purchase four Liebherr LR1300SX crawler cranes at Bauma 2013 in Munich (pictured right). Blue Water Shipping has doubled its coverage of Norway with the opening of a second in-country office in Stavanger. Inchcape Shipping Services (ISS) is expanding its reach in the Amazon region with the opening of a new office in Santarém, Pará State.

Cargolux has bled red ink as it slumps to a net loss of USD35.1 million for FY 2012 off revenues of just under USD1.74 billion while hoping to achieve black ink in 2014. The National Shipping Line of Saudi Arabia (Bahri) has seen its net profit for Q1 2013 fall by 9.4 percent year-on-year over 2012 to SAR144.5 million (USD33.5 million).

Countries with poor communication strategies must not rely on the air cargo industry to raise awareness and to enforce new air cargo supply chain security measures, demands the Global Air Cargo Advisory Group (GACAG). Royal Boskalis Westminster has wrapped up its purchase of Dockwise.

Notable projects!

Project Cargo & Yacht Transport has completed the transportation of wind turbine generators from Spain to Pakistan in a consignment weighing 7,575 tonnes. The same company has also loaded three Middle East-bound boats at the Port of Derince, Istanbul in one day onto the same vessel. Ahlers India has shipped nine boiler shells from Bangalore, India to Colombia. Maersk Line teamed up with Emirates Team New Zealand to move the latter's 22 m AC72 catamaran from Auckland to San Francisco to compete in the 2013 Americas Cup. CNC Freight Services arranged two charter flights using an AN-124 freighter out of Singapore to Turkmenistan, each flight loaded with three winches weighing a total of 95 tonnes.

On the waterfront

The 1,500 tonne offshore barge Conquest MB I has been deployed at Heerema's quay in Flushing, Netherlands.

Hatches, matches and dispatches

Appointments at the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) have seen: Tony Nassif, ABS executive v-p and coo; Robert G Clyne, ABS v-p, general counsel and chief compliance officer; James G Gaughan, ABS v-p and chief engineer; and Maria F O'Neill, ABS v-p and chief information officer join the board. Chow Yew Yuen and Dr Jen-Hwa Chen have been elected to the ABS offshore technical committee.

At the same time, Christopher J. Wiernicki, currently ABS president and ceo, has been appointed chairman, replacing Robert D. Somerville. Thad Stanley is now director of business development at MIQ Logistics and will head up the company's sales team. Saeed Ghodrat is now an account manager at Air Partner (pictured top right). Oliver Evans, chief cargo officer of Swiss International Air Lines, is now chairman of The International Air Cargo Association (TIACA) while Enno Osinga, senior
v-p cargo at Schiphol joins him as vice chairman (pictured second right).

All about Evie

Evie congratulates Blue Water Shipping on its award for outstanding safety work at the safety conference Task Force Zero 2013. She loves the project forwarder's 'zero incident mindset' to keep the staff and customers safe.

The World Bank has come down heavily on Canadian EPC company SNC-Lavalin Inc, barring parts of the group for a decade from working on WB projects after alleged misconduct in connection with Bangladesh's Padma bridge project and another Bank-financed project. It has also been reported that SNC-Lavalin has been conspiring to bribe officials in Cambodia while the Mounties - Evie loves a man in a red military jacket on a horse - are looking into SNC-Lavalin's activities in Libya, Algeria and
Bangladesh.

Full details on all the stories in this week's issue of the Friday Flyer can be seen on the HLPFI website.

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