Mercè Conesa

Generating value for society

I would like to take this first opportunity offered to me as the President of the Escola Europea to address all of the alumni and readers of the ODISEO newsletter.

I took up the post of President of the Port of Barcelona a few weeks ago, and in this time I have been experiencing this multifaceted reality of the Port – or ports, because there are more than one – its different activities and projects and the people that comprise its community.

From strategy to infrastructures

In the development of the duties that have been entrusted to me, I keep in mind the mission of the institution that I represent: the Port itself. In its most traditional version, it is the body responsible for the development, construction and management of new infrastructures. It is also responsible for guaranteeing services that facilitate the competitiveness of its customers, and for creating value for society: infrastructures and services of the society to which we are indebted.

The final goal is clear and we have many ways to work towards its achievement. The strategic axes that will guide our development in the coming years are sustainability and innovation.

At the same time, the Port needs to strengthen connectivity with its terrestrial and maritime hinterland in order to increase the agility of the logistics chains that pass through the port area.

On the terrestrial side it is necessary to finish road and rail infrastructures that grant access to the port, to increase its current capacity and improve connections, both with the rest of the peninsula and with France and the rest of Europe.

In the maritime dimension of the hinterland, the Motorways of the Sea must play a fundamental role. Our connections with Italy and with the Maghreb have to be developed to allow for a greater agility of the passage of goods and improved door-to-door services. The Maghreb is today a key region in Europe’s construction project. Its development is a necessary element to achieve the stabilisation of the region.

It should be noted here that in both rail and maritime services, an acceptable solution must include both of the nodal infrastructures and transport corridors that connect them. The final solution depends on everyone involved, so doing it right at the port is no longer enough. It must be done well from beginning to end. The port can make the investments within its territories, but it becomes necessary to have equivalent infrastructures present in the destination nodes. This requires a different action that depends on third parties, which in itself poses difficulties and uncertainties.

A part of the solution must come from the development of transport networks that arise from the design and implementation of the Trans-European Transport Network, so that they can be extended and integrated with those of the rest of the Mediterranean countries. This Trans-Mediterranean network must be the engine of change in the region.

From infrastructures to logistics communities

Once we have the infrastructures, it is necessary to develop high quality and competitive maritime and railway services. Customer-oriented logistics communities, in which competitiveness, quality and proactivity in the management of services and efficiency are the main axes of the action.

We need ports that work and are built as a team, especially in terms of collaboration between public administrations and private operators. Two worlds that seek to establish a dialogue and cooperation to harmonise their interests and activities. Customs, inspection services, police … Each one with its obligations and responsibilities is looking for a way to respond to customers, while continuing to innovate and find better and more effective ways to preserve the environment as a source of wealth and development of the societies to which they must provide services to.

From logistics communities to the people

Complex infrastructures that provide complicated services, are innovative and sustainable, and contain competitive logistics chains in an uncertain and changing environment are not easy to maintain. Finding the people capable of doing it isn’t either.

The ports, in their current state, with the collaboration of the training centres, can be the organisations that facilitate the development of people in the sector, provide quality training and the develop the competencies that allow effective management of operations and ultimately lead to customer satisfaction. Generating value today goes through the recruitment of talent, which in turn happens to employ and retain the people capable of providing it.

Talent can be bought or built. For the first, money is needed. For the second, it takes vision, conviction, determination, patience and perseverance. And the results at the end are not the same. The first solution is ephemeral. The second is consistent and durable. We need to train the best professionals to help build the best port in the world in the broadest sense of the term.

We can buy creativity and innovation, but it is better to have creative people with the capacity and desire to innovate. We can apply environmental measures to improve sustainability, but it is better to have people convinced of and dedicated to sustainability.

The Escola can and must help advance on this path that tries to maximise the immediate and universal value for the society. I hope I can help achieve these goals that will allow us to build a better world for all.

 

Mercè Conesa
President
Escola Europea – Intermodal Transport

Ports Announce Climate Change Initiative

A group of the world’s leading port authorities have announced the launching of the World Ports Climate Action Programme, an international initiative with the objective of fighting climate change.

It will focus on a number of key areas, all based around improving supply chain efficiencies and cutting emissions. Signatories include the port authorities of Hamburg, Barcelona, Antwerp, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Vancouver and Rotterdam.

These will include accelerating the development of commercially viable sustainable low carbon fuels for maritime transport and infrastructure for electrification of ship propulsion systems.

The agreement will also concentrate on pursuing efforts to fully decarbonize cargo-handling facilities in ports, and research other renewable power 2-ship solutions.

Read more about cliamte change and sustainability in ports by reading a Port Technology technical paper

In a joint statement, the authorities of the Port of Rotterdam and the Port of Antwerp urged all companies in the shipping industry to reaffirm their commitment to the Paris Agreement, a global initiative aimed at combatting climate change.

Allard Castelein, CEO of the Port of Rotterdam Authority, and Jacques Vandermeiren, CEO of the Port of Antwerp Authority, commented on the Programme: “The Paris Agreement has set a clear target: we need to limit global warming to well below 2°C.

“It is vital in this context to reduce the emissions generated by maritime transport. As critical hubs in the global maritime transport network, I am convinced that ports can make a significant contribution.

“I am pleased to see that international port authorities have taken on a leading role in this area, committing to collaborative projects that can further advance the decarbonization of the maritime transport sector.”

Source: Port Technology

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

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.

More Ports becoming “LNG ready”

Developments in bunkering infrastructure are enabling more ports to call themselves ‘LNG ready’ allowing them to better cater for the increase in LNG fuelled ships.

Propelled by the advancement of LNG as a ship fuel and its role in helping the maritime industry move closer to zero-emissions shipping, ports including Hamburg and Busan have committed to introducing bunkering infrastructure and facilities on a long-term basis.

Green technology will be a major focus at the upcoming SMM exhibition, where “the Green Route will guide visitors to exhibition stands relevant for green technologies in all 13 exhibition halls,” said Claus Ulrich Selbach, business unit director – Maritime and Technology Fairs & Exhibitions at Hamburg Messe und Congress GmbH.

“Hall A5 will again be dedicated exclusively to green propulsion, and at the global maritime environmental congress (gmec) international experts will gather to share their views. This event should not leave any questions unanswered,” he added.

LNG technology

Technology solutions such as Becker Marine Systems’ LNG PowerPac, currently in use at the Port of Hamburg, demonstrate that LNG can be effectively used to supply electricity to ships at berth, aiding the progress of cold ironing, another green power solution tipped to significantly reduce emissions.

The environment in the context of sustainability will also be another key focus at the exhibition, with discussion set for many of the subject-specific conferences, as well as at the global maritime environmental congress (gmec) on 5 September.

Under the motto ‘Compliance – Control – Champions’, all panel discussions will revolve around current and future challenges resulting from tighter environmental regulations.

Source: Green Port

Port Single Window: study visit for an Algerian delegation organised by the Escola Europea

After a few weeks of summer break, this week the Escola Europea reopens its doors to training. An Algerian delegation, made up of representatives of various public institutions as well as private companies, met in Barcelona for a study visit entirely dedicated to the Port Single Window, thanks to the initiative of the World Bank and the Port of Barcelona. The course is organised by the Escola Europea, which has designed a programme of theoretical lectures and practical visits to some facilities of the port community of Barcelona.

The course, which started yesterday, August 28th, lasts 3 days (18 hours). The starting session was chaired by the new President of the Port of Barcelona, Mercè Conesa, accompanied by Nora Berdja, Consul General of Algeria in Barcelona.

The theoretical sessions of the visit will cover all the operations involved in the procedures related to the Port Single Window, and will be complemented by a maritime visit to the Port of Barcelona and two land visits to the ro-ro Grimaldi terminal and the semi-automatic container terminal BEST.

The teachers on this visit, designed to suit the Algerian delegation, are professional experts in international trade. For the Port of Barcelona: Carles Rúa, head of strategic projects and innovation; Rafael Gomis, director of organisation and business consultancy; Lluis Paris, commercial manager; and Jaume Bagot, business process improvement manager. They are joined by Josep Carles Llagostera, Barcelona Maritime Customs Administrator; Beatriz Cruz, head of the BIP (Border Inspection Post) area; Javier Gallardo and Vicente González, respectively director and project manager from PortIC Barcelona.

The Escola Europea thanks the support and collaboration of the Grimaldi terminal, of the BEST Hutchison Group terminal, for the practical visits.

The study visit is part of the activities of the TransLogMED project, of which the Escola is the promoter. The visit will serve as a first step to organize training activities on Algerian territory and thus begin to strengthen collaborative ties with the Maghreb country. The next activity planned in the TransLogMED calendar is the conference on Motorways of the Sea to be held on 3 October in Casablanca.

From LNG to Hydrogen? Pitfalls and Possibilities

Liquid hydrogen could get a leg up from the industry’s experience with LNG propulsion,writes Stevie Knight.

Gerd-Michael Wuersig, DNV-GL’s business director for Alternative Fuels explains: “While hydrogen doesn’t come under the IGF code as yet, from my point of view I’d say the maritime industry’s hesitancy is more due to missing experience; most of the process technology and safety principles that relate to LNG will relate to hydrogen, and while there are different factors involved, in the end the risk level will not be very different. This is the good news.”

The bad news is that while your shipboard or bunkering design might look very similar, the components, like valves, hoses and piping are not necessarily interchangeable: “It’s a smaller molecule and it can escape through joints or seals that would retain LNG,” he adds. “You’d have to look to see if the current components would be suitable – but most likely I think you’ll have changes in your equipment,” says Dr Wuersig. And, he adds, it’ll work out quite a bit more pricey.

However, he also points out that the while it may be a novel application, the technology itself is not new.Joe Pratt underlines this point: “The equipment and expertise has been in existence for a long time. In North America, for example, LH2 production, handling, and distribution have been mature for over 50 years… So a lot of the components will come off the shelf.”

More, LNG developments can’t help much here as at this point the design deviates sharply. Two characteristics of LH2 are low density and low boiling temperature: together these demand an extremely low heat flux through the tank walls.

Dr Wuersig explains that the normal 40cm LNG insulation “just won’t work”. He says a moderately large LNG tank could lose 0.2% of its total volume a day but “store hydrogen in the same kind of tank and you would actually lose 5% of the contents every day to vaporisation”.

“Therefore to get down to roughly the same boil off rate the insulation of the hydrogen tank must be about 10 times more efficient than an LNG tank,” says Dr Wuersig. “In fact you need a system that is gas tight from the outside as well as the inside with no chance of the air finding its way into the insulation – if it does it will condense, and this will suck yet more air in.”

A multilayer approach with an evacuated space between the inner and outer shell is already being used to keep LH2 and liquid helium cold in the industrial sector, but there’s only one project so far – for a KHI-designed ship – that’s being scaled for the marine trading world, although the eventual development of larger vessels will have an advantage because higher capacity tanks exhibit a lower boil off rate.

There are other dissimilarities between LNG and LH2. Dr Pratt says when it comes to bunkering, “the biggest difference is the much colder temperature of LH2” and explains that unlike LNG, H2 is actually colder than oxygen or nitrogen. While LNG can hover at -163°C, liquid hydrogen needs to be kept at -253°C.

So, “even through vacuum insulation you will get very cold temperature on the outside of the pipe that can freeze or condense oxygen and nitrogen out of the air”.  For practical purposes, not only do you need a very high grade of insulation, “there will be some drip pans and possibly restrictions on fuelling over asphalt to prevent any fire possibility as a result of having pure oxygen forming around the pipes”, said Dr Pratt.

BIG QUESTION

Hydrogen is already the chosen option for a number of smaller vessels with an environmental agenda: “Norway is working on constructing hydrogen fuelled vessels, mostly battery hybrids, as it is aiming for zero emissions in the fjords,” says Dr Wuersig. The autonomous Energy Observer, which electrolyses seawater for fuel, has recently set off on a six year missionand Dr Pratt is himself pursuing the build of a small, multipurpose freight carrier for California through GGZEM.

But, the most obvious question is: would hydrogen be a useful alternative for big ships?

First of all, bigger ships will need to bunker liquefied, not compressed, hydrogen. Dr Pratt says: “In general, it’s always better to go to LH2 if you can get it and afford the cost difference – it gives you more range or longer times between refuelling than gas, no matter what the size of the vessel.” This obviously needs the development of infrastructure – and here again, the industry experience with LNG will be invaluable – but on which kinds of vessels could it find a home?

Sandia’s research Practical Application Limits of Fuel Cells and Batteries for Zero Emission Vessels* (at the time lead by Dr Pratt), has dug deep into the nitty-gritty, with a look at no less than 14 possible ships and their associated routes.

This takes a detailed look not just at the power required, but whether the ship could actually accommodate the necessary architecture – helped of course by the fact that fuel cells, unlike a shaft drive engine, can be positioned in a variety of areas.

One of the 14 studies was the 397m Emma Maersk. Despite the large power and energy requirements, the research showed that the ship is able to hold a fuel cell powerplant using liquid hydrogen, scaled for a single voyage from Tanjung Pelepas, Malaysia to Port Said, Egypt with a total voyage time of 256hr at an average speed of 19.6 knots and average shaft power of 36.1MW. This would require bunkering with 616t of LH2.

Likewise, a detailed look at Colombo Express (335m) showed that it could carry out three of its typical, single trips between Singapore and Colombo, Sri Lanka, fuelled with 183t of LH2.

The devil is in the detail. Dr Wuersig points out that hydrogen has a low energy density by volume (though not by weight) which is only around 40% of that LNG. As already pointed out, LH2 isn’t heavy, but one tonne of it takes up over 14,128 litres by volume: this means 8,500m3 of LH2 for that Emma Maersk journey on LH2.

Could it be done? Yes, but it’s tricky as deep sea routes aren’t made up of single journeys. Taking the kind of operational profile that’s used onboard the latest LNG-fuelled CMA CGM ships which require an 18,000m3 tank installed underneath the wheelhouse, “you’d need 50,000m3 instead” he says. Further, he estimates the Asia-Europe string is 40 days: therefore the Emma Maersk would need around 72,000m3 to transit this on LH2 alone.

However, the case is different for shorter runs: according to the Sandia study, Colombo Express fairs better: 833m3 for that Singapore-Colombo single trip (2,500m3 for three journeys).

More, both agree that when it gets to ropax crossings like those between the east coast of the UK and Rotterdam, there’s obviously an advantage as it’s a short, regular, point-to-point journey “and you do need the infrastructure to deliver the hydrogen, something that’s caused other viable projects to fail” says Dr Pratt. Certainly Sandia’s investigation showed that Pride of Hull has room for a fuel cell and LH2 tank scaled for 15.8t of fuel, yielding no less than five crossings on just one fill up.

Dr Wuersig adds there are many other areas that might see hydrogen as a viable alternative for slightly larger ships on a regular run: “Baltic carriers for example, could benefit because they could be filling up every few days; then there’s the US-Hawaii traffic on the Jones Act ships.” More, he adds that Chinese river traffic is presently looking LNG, but there could soon be a lot of renewable energy capacity in China that might not all be easily absorbed by the grid “which might change the maths when it comes to the generation of sustainable fuels”.

It’s not just China, some of the windfarms and renewable arrays around offshore Europe are presently considering generating hydrogen in their off-peak periods.

More, Sandia’s study on the offshore supply vessel Maersk Frontier showed it could take on no less than 28 single trips (14 round trips) on the 166nm journey between home port in Aberdeen UK and the Janice offshore facility at an average 9.7 knots, so LH2 could be worthwhile for wider ranging applications. Even closer to realisation is Zero-V, a coastal research vessel concept by Glosten, Sandia and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography that’s just been given AIP by DNV GL. Supported by bunkering of its 11,000kg capacity tanks at four ports along the US West Coast, it will have a 10kn range of 2,400 nautical miles.

However, another niggling detail presents itself: LH2 is also expensive to create: “At present production costs alone come to around $2.00 per litre, that’s without the base feed,” says Dr Wuersig. And no, it probably won’t get a lot cheaper – it’s down to the physics. The amount of energy required for liquefying hydrogen takes a huge 30% slice out of the total, compared to about 5% for LNG.

This is one of the main reasons that hydrogen hasn’t already found a niche: however, we’ve not experienced this regulatory landscape before, points out Dr Wuersig. “If we keep to our carbon ambitions, then yes, there will be reason to employ hydrogen as one of a number of multiple fuel options.”

* Practical Application Limits of Fuel Cells and Batteries for Zero Emission Vessels (http://energy.sandia.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/SAND2017-12665.pdf). 

AMBIENT-LIQUID HYDROGEN TRANSPORT?

The LH2 demonstrator is not the first long-range hydrogen supply chain project targeting Japan.

Last year, Chiyoda Corp started to work on transporting hydrogen extracted from natural gas at an LNG plant in Brunei and delivering it to the city of Kawasaki in Japan – but rather than chilling to -253°C, the hydrogen is bound to a carrier substance and carried in simple chemical tankers which slot neatly into the existing supply-chain technology. No need for expensive cryogenics.

Transforming hydrogen into an ambient liquid means binding it with a carrier substance, such as toluene, converting it to methyl cyclohexane (MCH) by hydrogenation: three H2 molecules attach to every molecule of toluene. At the other end it’s reconverted to hydrogen gas, the toluene being recovered for the next round.

Professor Kazuyuki Ouchi, University of Tokyo explains that the density, while not quite as high as LH2 (500 times that of hydrogen gas, as compared to 700 times) “it is of the same order” so yields a tolerably similar output.

Interestingly, the project, which is expected to start production in 2020 with an output of 210 tonnes (enough to fill up 40,000 fuel cell vehicles), has Mitsubishi Corporation, NYK and Mitsui onboard.

More, while it’s starting with a fossil fuel base, Chiyoda believes that production will eventually move to renewably-derived hydrogen.

Source: The Motorship

Blockchain Solution for Shipping has Ports, Container Lines, Forwarding Agents and Customs On Board

However Not All Are So Enthusiastic About Who Handles Their Data

DENMARK – US – WORLDWIDE – Having initially announced their collaboration on a blockchain technology project two year’s ago, partners in the arrangement AP Möller Maersk and IBM, have finally go round to christening it, TradeLens, and since formally launching the ‘joint collaboration’ as they call it, at the beginning of this year, it seems they have been busily signing up interested parties, from port operators to logistics agencies, customs authorities and even rival ocean container freight carriers.

So far ninety four different organisations have put their faith in the project which is being marketed as a neutral platform which, having been trialled up to this point, is intended to become commercially viable by the end of the year. To emphasise this is not a joint venture in the true sense of the term each of the two founding partners will retain the revenue from the operations which they sign up.

Whilst TradeLens is what is becoming the classic model for a blockchain project within the industry, and based on the well proven Linux open source operating system coupled with Linux developed Hyperledger technology, similarly open sourced, doubtless not everybody will be comfortable with the management strategy. Maersk and IBM say the system establishes a single view of a transaction en route whilst maintaining security enabling participants to establish the exact status of a consignment.

The information is as detailed as possible, with sensors checking and relaying geographical, temperature and mass information remotely whilst establishing customs status, document and data specifics etc. The delays inherent in current systems could be seen immediately by all interested parties and Maersk and IBM claim delays reduced on trial shipments amounted to up to 40% time savings, with consequent cost reductions.

Obviously with Maersk and subsidiaries Hamburg Süd and APM Terminals involved the amount of data which has been processed since trials began is huge. Over 150 million shipping activities have been recorded on the platform in the one year period and the partners now say this has grown to approaching one million events every day.The system has received praise from some of its earliest participants which include freight forwarders and logistics specialists Damco, Agility and Ceva. Xavier Urbain, CEO of Ceva Logistics commented recently:

“We see great potential in TradeLens because it provides real-time access to all parties involved in the supply chain. It’s a big step in building a global market standard for blockchain solutions.”

However not everyone who is a possible stakeholder is quite so enthusiastic at handing over all their confidential data to a potential rival, particularly in the light of the cyber attackswe have seen against major players, including Maersk, in the industry of late. Both CMA CGM and Hapag Lloyd have expressed reservations about TradeLens in its current form with Hapag-Lloyd CEO Rolf Habben Jansen commenting:

”Technically the solution could be a good platform, but it will require a governance that makes it an industry platform and not just a platform for Maersk and IBM. And this is the weakness we’re currently seeing in many of these initiatives, as each individual project claims to offer an industry platform that they themselves control. This is self-contradictory, without a joint solution, we’re going to waste a lot of money, and that would benefit no one.”

Source: Handy Shipping Guide.

Barcelona, the gate to Europe and the Mediterranean

The Port of Barcelona will lead, from 9th until 17th November, a trade mission to Viet Nam. The delegation, integrated of companies importing and exporting, logistics and port will visit two major cities: the capital, Hanoi, and Ho Chi Min, which concentrates the largest commercial activity in the country.

Viet Nam was chosen by the port community of Barcelona for being considered as a strategic market, in addition for being the country that presents the greatest growth of Southeast Asia, and the second of all far East. It is seen by these companies as a stable country that is developing an ambitious reform plan to promote the internationalization of its economy.

Strategic location, productivity, quality and connectivity

Barcelona is presented to Vietnamese companies as the South Gate to access the European market and the platform of distribution for the Mediterranean and North Africa. It is the capital of Catalunya, the most dynamic region of Spain and one of the four industrial engines of Europe. Its economy, which presents a high degree of openness, represents 20% of the whole of the State, while exports exceeded 30% of the Spanish total.

El Port de Barcelona, which currently offers 5 regular maritime lines that connect it with 18 Vietnamese ports, offers a complete range of logistics solutions and reliable transport of importers and exporters highly competitive. It is of one of the ports with the highest productivity in Europe, technologically advanced and with an excellent quality of service. Likewise, has an excellent maritime connectivity, interoceanic lines of high capacity with America and Asia, and daily services of short sea shipping to Italy and North Africa. The Port – located just 160 kilometers from the French border- also has regular rail services to the Iberian Peninsula and Europe and offers customers complete logistic services prepared for serve any kind of merchandise and transport.

This commitment to quality and efficiency has led to position itself as the European port with a higher growth of traffic in the year 2017, with 61 million tons (+ 26%) and 3 million TEU (+ 32.3%). Traffic between the Port of Barcelona and Vietnamese ports also has had an excellent evolution: On year 2017, the container traffic of Catalan infrastructure with origin or destination in Viet Nam outpointed the 27,300 TEU, which is an increase of 19% over the previous year. With regard to the volume of tons, trade amounted last year to 362.412 tons, an increase of 18.5%. This positive trend is being maintained in early 2018 and, between January and June, container traffic between the Port of Barcelona and Viet Nam has increased 34%.

Catalan Viet Nam exports increased in 2017 for the third consecutive year to exceed 121 million euros, 27.3% more than the previous year. Coffee, machinery, textiles, food and furniture are among the main goods exchanged between Barcelona and Viet Nam.

Business mission of the Port of Barcelona: a model of success

Viet Nam welcomes the 20th mission business of the Port of Barcelona, which has been organized with the collaboration of the Generalitat de Catalunya, VOCI, Foment de Treball Nacional, PIMEC, Casa Asia, the Institute of foreign trade of Spain, the Embassy of Viet Nam in Spain and VISABA. In this edition, the Catalan delegation will be chaired by the Minister for territory and sustainability (Minister of infrastructures), Damià Calvet and the President of the Port of Barcelona, Mercè Conesa.

The missions aimed at strengthening business and institutional links between the port and logistics communities of Barcelona and of the receiving countries, generating new business opportunities and contributing to the internationalization of their economies.

In both cities Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh, business meetings will be celebrated. In addition, a technical seminar of customs will be held in Ho Chi Minh, which has been particularly valued by participants in previous missions.

The technical seminar of customs, which will count with the participation of representatives of entities linked to the port-logistics sector and of responsible for the customs services of both countries, will deal with those innovations that can improve the customs management in the Port of Barcelona – the figure of the economic authorized operator, the expansion of the functions customs related, telematization of document processes, etc.- and the specificities of the customs system of Viet Nam.

Subsequently, the participants will benefit from an agenda of bilateral contacts aimed at the development of new business.

Nineteen previous editions, which have visited countries of America, Asia and Africa, have been particularly valued by participants since they have generated significant growth in traffic and they have been the starting point for various Professional and Institutional collaborations that have been consolidated over the following years.

Custom contacts agendas

The Organization of the mission offers Vietnamese companies the possibility of preparing a personalized agenda of contacts, in accordance with their interests and objectives, to facilitate the detection of counterparts and business development. These agendas are being prepared by the ICEX – Office for economic and commercial of the Embassy of Spain in Viet Nam.

Source: Port de Barcelona News

Blockchain use for fuel supply traceability

Blockchain technology looks set to increase transparency and traceability in the marine fuel supply chain to create better compliance and stronger governance.

A new consortium will demonstrate the application of blockchain as a means of facilitating transparency as part of the maritime-focused Maritime Blockchain Labs (MBL) initiative

“We are delighted to be involved with a consortium that could play an important role in realising the transformative potential of blockchain within shipping, beginning with a timely and relevant first use case in the bunker industry,” said Grant Hunter, head of contracts & clauses at BIMCO, one of the consortium partners.

“Blockchain “Smart Contracts” based on harmonised terms and conditions like the BIMCO Bunker Terms 2018 could be a stepping stone for the industry to achieve greater transparency and efficiency.”

Evaluation

The consortium will bring together Lloyd’s Register, Precious Shipping, Bostomar, BIMCO, International Bunker Industry Association (IBIA), and GoodFuels.

It will evaluate how blockchain technologies could help to provide an efficient, tamper-resistant and auditable chain of custody on quality and quantity recording activities, together with a reputation system of the compliance of fuels prior to purchase, benefitting both buyers and regulatory bodies.

Such characteristics help to provide greater confidence in the fuel being purchased, ultimately resulting in reduced safety risk and creating a more trustworthy framework for accurately monitoring emissions from shipping such as sulphur and carbon.

The project represents the initial stage of the Lloyd’s Register Foundation-funded MBL initiative, the first true industry collaboration for the creation of blockchain technology in the maritime space.

Source: The Motorship

The Propeller Club Barcelona plans activities for 2018 and 2019

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.