The Friday Flyer - March 21st 2014

Matters maritime dominated this week's events in the heavy lift and project cargo sector.

First we saw the confirmation from Zeaborn GmbH, a Bremen based German shipping company established in 2013, that it has signed a contract with a Chinese shipyard for the construction of 10 multipurpose ships. The line declined to comment on media reports of an additional contract with another yard for the construction of a further six ships, and an option for four more.

Meanwhile, the week also brought the news that the Maersk-Rickmers U.S. Flag Project Carrier joint venture, which was formed by Maersk Line, Limited and Rickmers-Linie (Americas) in September 2011 to provide breakbulk and project cargo shipping using two newly-built multipurpose ships operating under the US flag, is being discontinued. We await an official announcement on the fate of the two 19,000 dwt vessels, named Maersk Illinois and Maersk Texas, which the jv deployed.

And finally came the news that the Federal Maritime Commission approved the P3 alliance to become effective from March 24, 2014, giving the three lines involved authorisation to operate vessel and slot sharing agreements in trades between the USA and Asia, North Europe and the Mediterranean.


In the corporate world

According to reports in the international media, a second of Polet Airlines' AN-124 freighter aircraft has been arrested in the UK.

BNSF Railways revealed a USD5 billion capital commitment plan for 2014 - USD1 billion more than its 2013 capital spend.

Jumbo signed a contract with Subsea 7 for the provision of FPSO mooring piles and ground chain installations for the Dana Western Isles Development Project (WIDP) in the North Sea.

BBC Chartering Australia Pty Ltd joined Shipping Australia Limited as a full voting member.

The Canadian Shipowners Association (CSA) raised concerns that Canada's ice breaker fleet will not be able to create and maintain the routes needed to move key cargo to Canadian and American industries.

According to a BBC report, Kent's Manston Airport could be closed as early as April 9, 2014 says its chief executive Charles Buchanan.


Capacity developments

US based Bay Crane, Crane Service Inc., ALL Erection & Crane Rental Corp and Bigge Crane & Rigging have all added new crane, truck and trailer capacity to their ranks (pictured top right).

Huisman has received a letter of intent for the delivery of two cranes with lifting capacities of 10,000 tonnes at a radius of 48 m onboard Hereema's new semi-submersible crane vessel.

Jumbo's vessel Daniella (pictured second right) is to be scrapped at the ??m?ekler ship recycling facility in Al?a?a, Turkey.

Liebherr unveiled its new 160-tonne capacity LTM 1160-5.2 mobile crane on a five-axle chassis at CONEXPO 2014 in Las Vegas.

Scheuerle has launched its Non-Cassette Carrier - a new trailer configuration for the transportation of 24 m x 4.5 m long packed metal sheets (pictured bottom right).

All Coast has entered into a contract with SEMCO to construct a new 250 ft leg liftboat.

Jack-Up Barge has completed sea trials of a new installation method for offshore wind turbines.


Shipments of the week

Rollit Cargo transported seven air coolers (pictured top right), each of which weighed 60 tonnes and had a length of 13.5 m and width of 6 m, from Montoir in France to Langelo in the Netherlands, utilising a coaster vessel, barge and special trailer.

Paragon Shipping and Logistics (PSL) handled the shipment of a 311-tonne high pressure separator (pictured second right), which had the dimensions 18.15 m x 5.15 m x 4.74 m, from Sharjah to Montreal onboard Jumbo's Fairlift for Belleli Energy.

A 113-tonne, 10.3 m wide ship propeller was loaded at Container Terminal Werder on the containership Hyundai Together at the Port of Hamburg, for oncarriage to a South Korean shipyard.

Mammoet worked against the clock to complete two back-to-back transports of Liebherr mining equipment for Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) and BHP Billiton Iron Ore (pictured bottom right).

Other notable projects reported by HLPFI this week can be seen on the archive news area of our website.

Got some project news of your own? Send it in to editorial@heavyliftpfi.com


EPC round up

This week, a report published by Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult claimed that the UK's offshore wind sector could generate as much as USD11.14 billion annually by 2020, while key contracts have been inked for the development of the Shah Deniz Stage 2 and South Caucasus Pipeline Expansion (SCPX) projects.

The European Investment Bank has agreed to help finance motorway construction in Scotland, and various power projects in India, Pakistan, Egypt and Greece.

The Azimut Project - a research project between 11 Spanish companies and 22 research centers, coordinated by turbine manufacturer Gamesa - has concluded that a 15 MW wind turbine will be feasible by 2020.

Please visit the HLPFI website for more EPC developments, or contact David Kershaw


On the move

Jan Lagasee has been appointed interim ceo of NV Zeeland Seaports, while Terex Cranes North America has named Steve Headden as its vice president of sales. Air Partner has appointed Neil Morris as interim chief financial officer with effect from April 1, 2014. Fritz Mumenthaler resigned from the Worldwide Project Consortium's (WWPC) board of advisors and Dirk Roethig (pictured top right) was voted in to replace him. Meanwhile, Dimerco Express Corporation has named Edward Lin as its new ceo, succeeding Paul Chien. Volga-Dnepr made three management appointments this week, with Wolfgang Meier (pictured bottom right) being promoted to group vice president for marketing and development, Robert van de Weg appointed to senior vice president of marketing and sales and Peter van de Pas joining the group as senior vice president of scheduled operations. DNV GL has moved into a new office in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, while GBS Yacht Transport has opened a new office in Genoa, Italy which will be headed up by Alessandra Terzi.


Network news

The WWPC raised a record-breaking USD31,000 for the Hanseatic School for Life during the charity auction at its 14th annual membership conference in Phuket, which was held from March 14 - 16. On the back of WWPC's conference, over 160 delegates from member companies of the Global Project Logistics Network (GPLN) attended its AGM in Hua Hin from March 16 - 18. Meanwhile, the Project Partners network added Italy's Unitransports Srl to its membership.


All about Evie

This week Evie heard news that DB Schenker had been named the official logistics supplier for the USA's World Beer Cup - a global beer competition. She hopes that DB Schenker sends some of the entries her way after they've been judged. Get the beers in!

Evie was also intrigued by the launch of Afrotech's Flying Donkey Challenge to create a mass-produced cargo drone, and wonders how much the concept of an unmanned drone carrying cargo is going to transform the world of freight.

A finger painting that Terex encouraged attendees to help create at the CONEXPO 2014 in Las Vegas caught Evie's eye this week and she highly recommends that you all check out the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9uWjoErRuI