TransLogMED helps connect the Magreb with European shores

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During the final quarter of 2018 the Escola Europea has concentrated its efforts in raising awareness of the benefits and characteristics of the motorways of the sea among the transport professionals in North African countries. Ricardo García, TransLogMED project manager travelled to Algeria in October and Tunisia in December to promote the project through informative conferences.

Aside from raising awareness of the benefits of the MoS as tools for sustainable development and job creation in the logistics sector, the conferences highlighted the efficiency of the innovative door-to-door intermodal supply chain in compensating for the handicaps of relying on single modes of transport (less flexibility of schedules and frequencies, ruptures of the transfers between the courses at sea and on land, numerous and various procedures).

The events were organised with the help of the Escola’s five founding partners: the Ports of Barcelona, Roma and Genoa, and the shipping lines GNV and Grimaldi Lines, as well as local partners. The conference in Algers, Algeria was sponsored by the Union for the Mediterranean, the Algerian Ministry for Transport and the World Bank. It took place on the 24th of October, 2018 and welcomed more than 100 participants from the local transport sector. On the 13th of December the Escola took the project to Sfax, Tunisia, and the information day was co-organised by the Maritime Institute for Maritime Training (IMFMM) and Ardes. Similarly, the event brought together more than 100 professionals from the Tunisian transport scene.

The long-term objective of the project is to foster the development of the motorways of the sea between the Mediterranean countries, which will in turn help promote inclusive growth and youth employability, as well as sustainable development in the region. The project focuses in particular on: Increasing efficiency in logistics and transport, particularly in door to door and platform to platform multimodal solutions; Enhancing the competencies and capabilities of the transport and logistics operators; and creating a knowledge network as the activities become regular, together with a best practice exchange platform that brings together experts from both Northern and Southern Mediterranean countries. For more information you can consult the project website: https://escolaeuropea.eu/projects/translogmed/.

 

The Escola and FONASBA sign collaboration agreements with the first partners for the SAILNET Programme

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On the 28th of September 2018, the director of the Escola Europea – Intermodal Transport, Eduard Rodes, travelled to Naples to sign an agreement of collaboration with the partners of the SAILNET Programme: Mr. Gian Enzo Duci from FEDERAGENTI (Italy), Mr. A. Mantrach from APRAM (Morocco), Mr. António Belmar from AGEPOR (Portugal) and Mr. Walid Dziri from All seas Shipping Agency (Tunisia). The meeting took place during the Naples Shipping Week assembly dedicated to “Port&ShippingTech”.

The signature of the agreement constitutes the kick-off of the Escola’s new exchange programme: SAILNET – Ship Agents Interchange Learning Network. This project has the aim to implement a unique network of knowledge made of courses and internships for young and promising maritime and logistics managers.

SAILNET is an international training and exchange programme successfully established today in 6 countries (Spain, Portugal, Italy, Morocco, Tunisia and Argentina). The course is an interactive, hands-on series of sessions designed to provide young professionals with knowledge and leadership skills, with the content of the sessions building on each other.

Promoted by FONASBA/ECASBA and ESCOLA EUROPEA with the support of the national shipping agents associations of the involved countries, the main aim of SAILNET Programme is to implement an Exchange programme, which may lead to possible collaborations between the companies and firms of the internships. This kind of international and intercultural approach also fosters the creation of new and lasting relationships and, more widely, of a network of people from around the world that could one day result in solid professional and collaborating bonds.

Check out the website http://www.sailnetprogramme.com to find out more about the SAILNET Programme.

For more information on the Escola you can write to info@escolaeuropea.eu.

The Motorways of the Sea to connect Africa to the European shores

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This autumn the Escola Europea – Intermodal Transport, in conjunction with the National Agency of Ports of Morocco (l’Agence Nationale des Ports – ANP) will organise a conference on the motorways of the sea (MoS) as new tools towards logistics development in Africa. The event will take place on the 3rd of October in Casablanca, Morocco, and it will bring together government representatives and directors of logistics companies in the region, as well as heads of training centres.

The conference will aim to raise awareness among local professionals of the practicalities and the benefits of MoS and intermodal transport as tools for sustainable development and job creation in the logistics sector. Existing short sea shipping services will be presented, alongside descriptions of the Escola’s activities that extend to the African continent.

The Escola’s founding partners, the Ports of Barcelona, Roma and Genoa, and the shipping lines GNV and Grimaldi Lines, are sponsoring the event, with the collaboration of the ANP and the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM).

Opening the conference, the director general of ANP Mrs Nadia Laraki, alongside Mrs Amane FETHALLAH, Director General of the Merchant Navy and Mr Francesc Carbonell from the UfM, will introduce the intermodal transport solutions existing between the European and African shores. This will be followed by three panels that will focus on innovative training for intermodality, infrastructures for intermodal development, and the different actors from the motorways of the sea respectively. The language of the conference will be in French.

This event in organised in the framework of the Escola’s TransLogMED project. The long-term objective of the project is to foster the development of the motorways of the sea between the Mediterranean countries, which will in turn help promote inclusive growth and youth employability, as well as sustainable development in the region. The project focuses in particular on: Increasing efficiency in logistics and transport, particularly in door to door and platform to platform multimodal solutions; Enhancing the competencies and capabilities of the transport and logistics operators; and creating a knowledge network as the activities become regular, together with a best practices exchange platform that brings together experts from both Northern and Southern Mediterranean countries. For more information you can consult the project website.

The Propeller Club Barcelona plans activities for 2018 and 2019

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On Thursday, the 5th of June, the Board of Directors of the Propeller Club Barcelona met to review the activities of the past year and to approve meetings and activities for the second half of 2018 and 2019.

Among the topics covered in the meeting were:

  • Review of the current memberships of the Club
  • A summary of scheduled colloquium lunches in 2018 along with a list of invited speakers. In September this will include Miquel Camps (vice president of PIMEC and president of PIMEC Autónomos); in October Maite Osés (from Nafosa, Grupo Osés); and in November, Mercè Conesa, President of the Port of Barcelona)
  • A planning of the monthly lunches for 2019. Dates have been proposed for each of the months in 2019, pending confirmation
  • A summary of events to take place in 2018 and 2019 that directly impact the Propeller Club. These included the annual social and benefit event of the Club, the V award for the Propeller Club, and the 2019 General Assembly meeting
  • Finally the steps necessary to take by the Club in light of the new GDRP law that came into effect in May 2018 were summarised to the members of the board.

The Propeller Club Barcelona is a partner in the Escola’s Forma’t al Port project. For more information access the project website or visit the Club’s website.

Butransa Spain collaborates in Forma’t al Port with the Escola

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On the 3rd of July, the director of the Escola Eduard Rodés met with Francisco Cuartero, the CEO of Butransa Spain to cement their collaboration in the Forma’t al Port program. The program, sponsored by the Port of Barcelona, Barcelona-Catalunya Logistics Center, the Provincial Council of Barcelona (Diputació de Barcelona) and the Escola Europea, has completed the first semester of its second triennium (2018-2020).

The program, through which the port community approaches students of Transport and Logistics, and International Trade, ended the year 2017 with a record high participation rate. 419 students had had contact with the Port of Barcelona and the business in its community, compared to 2016’s 114 students.

The courses organised under the umbrella of Forma’t al Port encourage the incorporation of students into dual training schemes within the businesses of the sector, with the overall goal of helping to prepare a future logistics community that is able to meet the strategic challenges of the Catalan region.

Forma’t al Port has taken a break for the summer and will return in the autumn with fresh courses for local high school students. There are two Management courses scheduled in October and November respectively, set to take place both in Barcelona and Genova.

Thanks to its brilliant results, the program continues with the goal of helping position Barcelona and Catalonia in the first line of logistics activities in Europe and the world.

For more information go to the webpage of the project: www.escolaeuropea.eu/format or contact us at: formatalport@escolaeuropea.eu

The port of Barcelona adapts 26 trucks for LNG to reduce emissions

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This is done under the RePort project, which is financed with European funds for regional development.

The port of Barcelona has adapted a total of 26 vehicles for its propulsion through liquefied natural gas (LNG) in an initiative led by the Port Authority of Barcelona in collaboration with ATEC, the Generalitat and Gas Natural, among other partners. The RePort project aims to promote the use of natural gas as an alternative fuel for trucks within the port area, with the aim of reducing polluting emissions. Within the framework of the project, the engines of a total of 26 trucks have been transformed into the dual-fuel modality. This adaptation allows the engines to use diesel and natural gas simultaneously, contributing to improve the air quality of the port and its immediate surroundings.

The RePort project is integrated into the Ris3cat Movilitat Eco Community, coordinated by Ficosa and co-financed with funds from the European Regional Development Fund, and managed by the Department of Action of the Generalitat de Catalunya. In addition to Ficosa and the Generalitat, the rest of the partners of the initiative, led by the port of Barcelona, are the Container Business Owners Association (ATEC), Gas Natural Fenosa, Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), Idiada, the School of Engineering of East Barcelona (EEBE-UPC), Dimsport Spain, Renewable Technical Consulting (RTC) and the Escola Europea – Intermodal Transport.

On Tuesday the 12th of June a presentation of the project detailed the tests planned for the coming months of the 26 trucks to evaluate the effectiveness of the modification. During the presentation, the president of the Port Authority Sixte Cambra, underlined that the RePort project is part of the Catalan Port’s Plan for the Improvement of Air Quality. He stressed that this plan is extremely ambitious and that there is a need to increase the use of natural gas to achieve its objectives.

The control of gas emissions in trucks falls under the responsibility of IDIADA, while the Barcelona Supercomputing Center is responsible for the modeling of the dispersion of pollutant emissions from port activities in both port and city environments of Barcelona. In addition, the RePort project also includes the installation of a real-time monitoring system from Renewable Technical Consulting (RTC) onto each truck, wiht the aim of calculating the percentage of gas replacement along with various other parameters of the engine and the route. Gas Natural Fenosa is responsible for designing the logistics of the supply of natural gas along the main routes that the trucks make either originating or terminating in the Port of Barcelona to establish the points where it will be necessary to install points of supply of this fuel, as well as the cost that this would entails. Finally, the Escola Europea-Intermodal Transport has carried out an efficient driving course for the drivers of the 26 tractors powered by vehicular natural gas (NGV), training them also in safety and handling of this fuel.

For more information about the RePort project you can consult the project page or the Port of Barcelona’s website.

The Escola Europea promotes short sea shipping and sustainable transport at Spain’s biggest logistics fair – SIL

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The Escola Europea – Intermodal Transport has participated in the International Logistics Show of Barcelona – the annual logistics fair in Spain. Sharing a stand with one of its main shareholders –the Port of Barcelona­-, the Escola presented its training offer for the second semester of 2018 and promoted some of its projects; highlighting the growing influence and success of TransLogMED and Forma’t al Port.

In a presentation held on the last day of the fair, Ricardo Garcia highlighted the importance of short sea shipping and the motorways of the sea in the continued development of the Mediterranean corridor and the need to improve sustainable transport. With this in mind, the Escola has launched the TransLogMED project jointly with the Union for the Mediterranean. Through the promotion of international cooperation in transport transactions and by providing training in intermodal transport that knows no borders, the project aims to enhance the competencies and capabilities of transport and logistics operators from the Northern and Southern shores of the Mediterranean basin. The project has a scheduled lifeline of four years and will organise conferences and courses to implement its objectives.

In terms of its training offer, in the summer months the Escola will hold the second edition of its technical training for professionals, focused on Groupage Operations and Consolidation Centres (18-20 of June). This course will be followed by an edition of Escola’s SURCO Operations I, focusing on rail- maritime intermodality, which will take place in Barcelona between the 2nd and 4th of July. In mid-July it will be the time of the Escola’s first ever Summer School on Port Operations (9-13 of July), a course designed for all kinds of profiles, professional, academic or vocational. Finally, in the autumn, two editions of the Escola’s unique Motorways of the Sea Training (MOST) course will take place. The first of these, MOST Italy, will take place between the 29th of September and the 2nd of October and will focus on the intermodal routes with short sea shipping maritime links in Italy. The second course MOST Iberia (20-23 October) will take a closer look at the intermodal transport situation across the Iberian peninsula.

The Escola has been complementing its intermodal training package with the Forma’t al Port project, whose goal is to bring young students closer to the professional field of the port communities. For the past three years the Escola has worked with Catalan training centres on professional work experience programmes. The courses have been hugely successful and will now be extended to Italian centres through a sister project Formati al Porto.

Union for the Mediterranean launches the TransLogMED project in Egypt

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The TransLogMED project was launched in Ismailia (Egypt) during the conference organised by the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) on Maritime Transport in Logistics, held between the 8th and 9th of May. The project presentation was delivered in the presence of the conference attendees, which included the prime minister of Egypt Sherif Ismail and Vice-Admiral Mohab Mamish, the president of the Suez Canal Authority.

The long-term objective of TransLogMED is to foster the development of the motorways of the Sea between the Mediterranean countries, which will in turn help promote inclusive growth and youth employability, as well as sustainable development in the region. Through the promotion of international cooperation in transport transactions and by providing training in intermodal transport that knows no borders, the project aims enhance the competencies and capabilities of transport and logistics operators from the Northern and Southern shores of the Mediterranean basin, whilst trying to create a knowledge network with a best practices exchange platform.

During the annual conference the project was promoted by the UfM, ACASME (Association of the Mediterranean Chambers of Commerce) represented by its president Ahmed M. El Wakil and the Escola Europea – Intermodal Transport, represented by its director Eduard Rodés.

The Escola Europea is the leader of TransLogMED. Throughout the conference the initiative was endorsed by members of the Escola’s Steering and Executive Committees: Paolo Signorini, the president of the ports of Genoa; Pedro Arellano, Deputy Director of the Port of Barcelona; Luca Lupi, Deputy President of the Ports of Rome and Lazio; as well as by Eduard Rodés, who is its president.

The conference brought together transport professionals from across the Mediterranean sea including representatives from centres which will collaborate with the Escola in the TransLogMED. These included Imed Zammit CEO, of the Institut Méditerranéen de Formation Aux Métiers Maritimes (IMFMM) from Tunis, Pr. BENABID Tahar Director of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Technologie from Argelia, Taoufik el Khadmi, director of the Institut de Formation Portuaire of Morocco and Alaa Morsy, vice-dean of the Port Training Institute of the Arab Academy for Science and Technology and Maritime Transport in Egypt.

For more information on the project and its planned activities you can consult the project page https://escolaeuropea.eu/projects/translogmed/ or write to info@escolaeuropea.eu.

Europe redoubles efforts to boost natural gas

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The EU promotes the use of LNG in transport, through support for projects that promote the development of gas infrastructure or studies that pursue a greater implementation of gas in the transport sector.

Numerous European projects promote research on natural gas as fuel, with the aim of developing new infrastructures that allow its use to be enhanced. The longed de-carbonisation of transport promoted by national and community authorities has led Member States to pay more and more attention to the advantages it offers.

The European Union declared that by 2020, 5% of transport vehicles use CNG or LNG in their journeys, which calls for continued investments in this area. One of the latest initiatives in this regard has been the HDGAS, which focused on the integration of gas engines in heavy vehicles, the conclusions of which will be published in April.

Its objective has been the optimization of the kinematic chains for dual-fuel and pure gas engines, their integration in trucks and the confirmation that they comply with the Euro 6 emission regulations in real driving conditions, as well as with the limits of CO2 or greenhouse gases emissions.

BESTway project

For its part, the BESTway project aims to implement new re-fueling solutions for Natural Gas along the Atlantic Corridor, for which it has a budget of 7.7 million euros, of which 50% is financed by the European Union.

Currently, nine service stations are being built for the refueling of LNG between Algeciras and the north of Paris that will be linked to other European mobility corridors. Five of them are located in Spain, in the provinces of Cádiz, Jaén, Toledo, Madrid and Burgos, and four others in France, in the towns of Castets, Bordeaux, Poitiers and Paris.

Started in September 2014, the project, in which Gas Natural Servicios, Gas Natural Europe and GTD Information System participate, is expected to end in December 2018.

BESTway aims to strengthen the infrastructures available for natural gas and to save entry barriers for this fuel in order to increase its consumption. In this sense, investment and energy efficiency studies are being carried out, alongside the promotion of training of workers and drivers.

An app has been developed to facilitate payment and refueling by drivers. Through this, the quality of service and safety in loading operations is expected to improve.

CEF project Eco Gate

Along the same theme the CEF project Eco Gate has been launched, which has 9.86 million euros for the construction of 39 gas stations in Spain, Portugal, France and Germany, which represents a total cost of 47 million euros.

Spain will receive funding to develop a total of 26 stations in Barcelona, Burgos, Madrid, Murcia, Salamanca, Irun, Tordesillas, La Junquera, Cordoba and Cartagena, among other cities, while in Portugal 10 will be built.

Integrated Logistics Chain

As Bestway’s predecessor, the GARneT project was the first of the TEN-T network to promote the large-scale use of LNG. The project was developed between 2012 and 2014 and resulted in the installation of seven CNG refueling stations for LNG in Spain, three of them mobile, with a budget of 7.6 million euros.

After this experience, the LNG Blue Corridors project was launched, which allowed a greater definition of European corridors by establishing 14 strategic replenishment points to guarantee the availability of fuel located in countries such as Italy, Germany, France or Spain.

To these great advances in the field of mobility through natural gas is added the Core LNGas hive, which promotes an integrated, safe and efficient logistics chain for the supply of Liquefied Natural Gas as fuel in the transport sector, in particular in the maritime field.

Promoted by Puertos del Estado and coordinated by Enagás, it has 42 partners in Spain and Portugal and includes 25 studies for the adaptation of infrastructures and logistics-commercial development for the provision of small-scale services and bunkering services .

Its budget amounts to 33 million euros, intended for the implementation of pilot projects for the development of distribution barges, the use of LNG in tugboats and port cranes, and the adaptation of regasification plants for the supply of the gas.

For its part, SamueLNG is an initiative to promote the sustainability of maritime transport through the use of Liquefied Natural Gas in the smaller vessels along the Atlantic Arc. The second part includes the installation of a mobile platform for the supply of this fuel in the port of Gijón and a barge in Vigo.

This same port facility has participated together with Puertos del Estado in the GPEC project for the development of the Off-Grid Shore Power system, OGSP, which uses LNG as fuel and allows the supply of electrical and thermal energy to the vessel while it is in port.

Source: Cadena de Suministro

Marrakesh: North African transport professionals introduced to TransLogMED by the Escola Europea

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The Escola’s efforts to continue to promote the ambitious TransLogMED project across the Mediterranean waters go further next week as its staff travels to Marrakesh to participate in the 7th edition of the International Logistics and Transport Tradeshow LOGISMED, from 9th to 11th May.

Being the largest landmark logistics trade show in Morocco, and having ascertained itself over the last 7 years as the largest gathering of transport and logistics professionals in Africa and the Mediterranean, LOGISMED proves the perfect venue to introduce the objectives and goals of the TransLogMED project to the visitors. The Escola Europea – Intermodal Transport will promote the project in its own booth, positioned next to one of its partners and stakeholders, Grandi Navi Veloci (GNV) (section D, booths D1 and D2).

The project office is also holding the TransLogMED project’s Action Committee in Marrakesh on the second day of the show, bringing together the project’s stakeholders and reviewing the past year’s accomplishments. During the meeting an overview of the goals for the current year will be listed, separated by the different participating countries (Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Jordan, and Egypt).

From the 7th to the 9th May, Eduard Rodés, the director of the Escola, will introduce the project at the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) Conference on Maritime Transport and Logistics which will take place in Ismailia, Egypt.

Among the project’s to-date achievements, the director of the Escola highlighted the huge success of the MOST (Motorways of the Sea Training) Tunis edition, which took place in April 2018. The course was organised jointly with the Institut Méditerranéen de Formation aux Métiers Maritimes, with the help of the Escola’s usual collaborators (Port of Barcelona, Ports of Genoa, Ports of Rome, Grandi Navi Veloci (GNV) and Grimaldi Lines) and the Office of the Merchant Navy (l’Office de la Marine Marchande), Cotunav, Stam and Transglory. The training was carried out on board of two vessels, one from GNV and the other from Cotunav, and took place on the short sea shipping crossing between La Goulette and Genoa.

The long-term objective of TransLogMED is to foster the development of the motorways of the Sea between the Mediterranean countries, which will in turn help promote inclusive growth and youth employability, as well as sustainable development in the region. The project focuses in particular on: Increasing efficiency in logistics and transport, particularly in door to door and platform to platform multimodal solutions; Enhancing the competencies and capabilities of the transport and logistics operators; and creating a knowledge network as the activities become regular, together with a best practices exchange platform that brings together experts from both Northern and Southern Mediterranean countries. The project took off in 2017 and will finish in 2021.

For more information you can consult the project page https://escolaeuropea.eu/projects/translogmed/ and the Escola’s website https://escolaeuropea.eu or write to info@escolaeuropea.eu.