Jumbo’s engineers and the crew of HLV Jumbo Jubilee transport and discharge fourteen of the twenty-five MOF caissons for the Chevron-operated Gorgon Project on Barrow Island, Australia

Not only is Barrow Island, Australia a Class A Nature Reserve, but soon it will be an important LNG export hub from the Gorgon Field, one of the largest gas fields on the planet.  A key component of this new export facility will be the Materials Offload Facility (MOF), consisting of wharves and craft landing facilities.  Creating the base of the MOF are 25 massive caissons, built in Malaysia.

Contracted by transport and logistics firm DB Schenker, on behalf of the Saipem Leighton Consortium, Jumbo Shipping’s Jumbo Jubilee will transport the caissons from Port Klang, Malaysia to Barrow Island, Australia.  At Barrow Island, Jumbo will use anchor points and mooring lines to keep the vessel in position while discharging the caissons.

The heavy lift vessel has a unique deck layout, enormous hold capacity and is allowed to sail with open hatches. This makes it possible to make optimum use of the capacity and transport seven MOF caissons at once while maintaining a minimum ship draught.

Image: Jumbo Shipping

With two voyages complete, the Jumbo Jubilee has two more voyages ahead of her to complete the task.  Demobilization is planned in July 2012.

The caissons, weighing from 600t up to 700t (D: 12.5 and H: 16.8 meter), will be lifted from a barge and placed in the hold of the vessel for transport. Image: Jumbo Shipping

Versabar's VB 10,000 lift system is used in the decomissioning of an 1,800-ton topside. Photo (c) Versabar

VB 10,000

The Versabar heavy lift vessel, the VB 10,000, was built in a span of 12 months and launched in October 2010 from Gulf Marine Fabricators in Ingleside, Texas. With a rated lift capacity of 7,500 tons, the VB 10,000 is the largest lift vessel ever built in the United States.

The VB 10,000 consists of two 240′ tall lift gantries joined to twin 300′ by 72′ barges to form a catamaran. The gantries are connected to the barges by patented articulated pins which decouple barge motion from the gantries. The vessel is equipped with a Class 3 DP system consisting of four 1,000 HP thrusters in each barge which enable it to maneuver on site and hold station in any water depth over 35 feet. The VB 10,000′s four 2,000-ton heavy lift blocks are paired with custom-engineered 400-ton hydraulic winches which may be operated independently or in a synchronized manner.

The VB 10,000 sits dockside at Gulf Marine Fabricators in Ingleside, Texas following the test lift of a water-filled barge. The barge was used to test each of the system's two gantries separately. Photo (c) Versabar

The VB 10,000 lists a 3,200-ton topside that had been stuck on its side and submerged in 40 feet of mud. Custom barge grilliage was designed and fabricated to support the deck properly during transport to a salvage facility. With vessels alongside, it gives a good indication as to the size of vessel. Photo (c) Versabar

The Claw

In 2011, Versabar engineered, fabricated, tested, and deployed a new underwater lift device named “The Claw”,  as an add-on to the VB 10,000 heavy lift vessel.

Controlled by the VB 10,000 lift system, the two identical grappling devices measure 122’ tall, 112’ wide, and weigh 1,000 tons a piece. Each set of massive steel jaws operates independently, but for larger loads, can be used in tandem for a double claw lift. Custom-engineered baskets, or “cradles” were built to use in conjunction with the Claw.

The cradles are lowered to the sea floor adjacent to sunken platforms, where they will serve as a base upon which the fragile topsides can be lifted to the surface. Once the Claw scoops up the damaged topside and deposits it on the cradle, the entire lift package is brought to the surface, placing no further stress on the topside. The cradles were designed with the flexibility of being lifted either by the Claw itself, or by using a rigging setup consisting of two specially-designed pipes. The versatility of the Claw’s design allows for customization according to each lift project, resulting in quick, efficient recovery. The Claw received the OTC Spotlight on New Technology Award in 2012.

The VB 10,000 sits dockside at Gulf Marine Fabricators in Ingleside, Texas upon completion of the Claw fabrication and installation. Photo (c) Versabar

Versbar's twin Claw assemblies simultaneously lift two custom-engineered cradles while undergoing function and load testing at Gulf Marine Fabricators. Each cradle weighs 425 tons and has a support capacity of 1,250 tons. The cradles serve as a base upon which fragile topsides can be brought from the sea floor to the surface. Photo (c) Versabar

Click here to view the embedded video.

[Via Versabar]

What’s the approach right now with Fairstar?  Are things getting sorted out with the Fairstar-Dockwise deal?  The last I heard things were “heating up” a bit between the two companies.

Not as far as we’re concerned.  We look at our control to be at over 54 percent, we still have of course a couple of formal position points ahead of us, like our AGM, but we’re confident we are able to explain the business case to our shareholders.

We have put our price forward, and there is a lot of speculation about the remaining 46 percent.

We’ve said we find the 22 percent premium on the value of the stock prior to our offer, to be a decent proposal, and that’s where we are. 

What does Fairstar think they are worth?

I have no idea, you’ll have to ask Fairstar.

Fair enough. 

Moving on… the Dockwise Vanguard was a bit of a feature for you this year at OTC Houston, and your company is planning to do some remarkable things once she’s delivered, such as dry-docking an FPSO while still attached to the buoy. 

A conceptual image showing the Dockwise Vanguard drydocking an FPSO while still connected to the production buoy, image courtesy Dockwise

How long has that concept been considered?

Really, we’ve been looking at this idea ever since we made the decision to build the Vanguard.  The idea behind this vessel is that it serves a couple of market segments.

First of all, we’re looking at the new, big production semis for deep water, because everything is getting bigger, and we’re looking at the potential to transport a fully integrated semi, so it’s not a separate hull, but a hull including the topside.

On Jack & St. Malo, they were just a little bit ahead of us, but if you look at Goliat, which is a fully integrated semi headed to northern Norway, that’s the idea we had when we decided to build it.

Is that one of those cylindrical FPSOs by Sevan Marine?

Yes, that is correct. Recently we have transported the Sevan Brasil, which is a drilling rig of a similar cylindrical shape as the Goliat.

Our next target market are spar buoys.

I think Statoil awarded Dockwise a contract for such a project recently isn’t that correct?

Yes, Aasta Hansteen.  It’s a long spar, and wider than the others we’ve transported in the past. Of the 17 spar buoys that are now installed in the Gulf of Mexico, we’ve transported 15 of them.

Perdido and Tahiti were the last two, but the Aasta Hansteen spar will be of a new generation of spars and a step up. We see new spar buoys targeted for the deepwater projects in the Gulf of Mexico and that’s a major segment we see as an ideal fit for the Dockwise Vanguard.

Our third targeted segment for the Dockwise Vanguard is transporting new builds from the Far East that do not have their own propulsion to either Brazil or West Africa. Then we would look at the transportation, or lifting, of the converted FPSOs.  Considering that there have been about 80 FPSOs in operation over the past 10 years, there is a particular need for this as many are now seeing maintenance issues that will require dry-docking.

Gradually, we have a lot of discussions ongoing with the FPSO owners and the oil companies about new builds and I expect that not too long from now, we’re probably going to sign another deal for the Dockwise Vanguard with one of the FPSOs.

How many contracts do you have signed for the Vanguard already?

We have three contracts at the moment for around $100 million, and the vessel is still under construction.

That’s fairly unique in an industry where everyone is fairly traditional from the beginning.

Well, the Dockwise Vanguard is certainly not a traditional vessel.

Nothing traditional about it indeed.

Recently, we’ve also decided to convert the Black Marlin and make it as big as the Blue Marlin for the near top end of the market, right under the Dockwise Vanguard cargo size.

The Blue Marlin and the Black Marlin were sister ships weren’t they?

We are going to make them sister ships again.

So, maybe I’m missing something, but as sister ships, I would think that both ships would have the same capacity when they were originally built?

They were exactly the same.

So what happened with the Blue Marlin?

We converted the Blue Marlin in 2004 when we signed the Thunderhorse contract with BP, then we converted her to a capacity of 75 thousand tons. Since then, she has been carrying around all these 6th Generation semis, big production units, and that part of the market is going to be so crowded in the next couple years that we decided to upgrade her sister ship.

Going back to the Fairstar deal, because we have decided to convert the Black Marlin, we need another vessel like her to fill in that segment of the market.

The Fairstar deal is significant for us because it is fully complementary to everything else that we do. In the fact that they have the converted barges, FORTE and FJELL, and for our offshore work, those vessels are pretty interesting. The other two vessels are a good addition to the rest of the fleet looking at their size.

What is Dockwise’s role in the Australian Ichthys project? 

The Ichthys project has a couple of components. There is an LNG project, which consists of modules, which is something that Fairstar is partly working on, but before that, the big production unit, which still needs to be built, that’s the unit which will be the largest floating production unit ever built.

The Prelude?

No, no, this will be the integrated semisubmersible that will be built and will be close to 100 thousand tons in weight.  This is something that we are looking at for the Dockwise Vanguard.  Then, there is an FPSO as part of this project, and the LNG systems. All of these projects have a significant magnitude, and most of it is pretty interesting for the Dockwise Vanguard.

Do you foresee building any more of these ships once this one is launched?

Well we take the position that we want to see this one done first. I would certainly like to have the first  three years under contract and then looking at the market, I think there might be a chance that we look at another one.

When will the Dockwise Vanguard be delivered?

Mid-December she’ll be delivered, but she will be in the water by August.

Who is classing this ship?

It’s DNV.

Was there a particular reason you chose DNV over any of the other classification societies?

We have a very strong relationship with DNV for all our vessels, so for a vessel with as much novelty and technology as the Dockwise Vanguard, we find DNV to be the most qualified.

Was this an in-house design?

We came up with the concept, because we knew pretty well what we wanted, essentially a semisubmersible aircraft carrier, and we figured out the basic conceptual design in-house, and then went to Deltamarin in Finland and they worked on it to see if it would work.  A few months later they came back and say we have something you need to see, and we think it’s doable. Here it is.

And how long have you been with Dockwise Andre?

I’ve been CEO since 2003, so almost 10 years now.

What has been the biggest challenge for you as CEO?

The biggest challenge was in 2006 when our parent company, Heerema sold us and we went through full control auction where we had a lot of bidders for our company.  That was 8 to 10 months of very complex negotiations, and the company was finally sold to a private equity firm.

All in all, it has been a really good situation for us ever since and has left us in the position to make a lot of investments and grow the company which has accelerated us in the right direction.

Rendering of a tandem load on board a K-class ship, image: Jumbo Shipping

Heavy lift and oversized cargo carrier, Jumbo Shipping, confirmed today the order for a second new K-class vessel, with an option on a third, to complement its existing fleet of 12 ships.

Image: Jumbo Shipping

Continuing with the heavy lift industry’s global push to create larger and more sophisticated ship to transport enormous structures, Jumbo has decided to upgrade the lifting capacity of the vessels from 1,300 to 1,500mt, enabling tandem lifts of 3,000mt.

This latest investment underlines Jumbo’s long-term commitment to its existing and new clients. The company’s strategy of continuing re-investment, renewal and development of its fleet is proceeding, as has been its practice for more than forty years. To provide optimum and timely solutions to its clients needs, irrespective of transient economic and shipping market cycles.

Safety and reliability are integral parts of Jumbo’s brand ethic, and these latest record-breaking vessels will assume a key role in delivering reliable and innovative service to both international transportation and offshore construction projects for years to come.

The K-class vessels are being built at the Brodosplit shipyard in Split, Croatia. The design incorporates Finnish-Swedish Ice Class 1A (thus ideal for projects in Arctic regions) and each vessel will be prepared for DP2 installation which, when fitted, will provide multi-facet installation support in the offshore sector enabling large and heavy structures to be loaded, transported and installed by a single vessel optimizing project scheduling, safety and efficiency.

Image: Jumbo Shipping

The first vessel will be in active service in the autumn of 2013. The sister-ship will follow some six months later.

Dockwise Vanguard, rendering courtesy Dockwise

Statoil has just awarded Dockwise a $57 million contract to tackle this project with the Dockwise Vanguard, a new super transport ship that will carry the Aasta Hansteen spar offshore Norway from a shipyard either in Korea or Finland in 2015.

The Vanguard will be an extremely capable vessel with a cargo deck 275 meters long capable of lifting 100,000 tons.  This is the third contract booked so far for this vessel in recent months.  Last October, Dockwise announced they had won a contract to deliver the Goliat FPSO from Korea to Norway on board this vessel.

Additional Dockwise contracts for other clients comprise the transport of four drilling rigs to Rotterdam, Saudi Arabia and Singapore (all for H1 2012) and a single load of barges to Brazil in Q2 2012.

André Goedée, Chief Executive Officer of Dockwise, commented: “These contract wins, particularly a double rig cargo on the Black Marlin from Singapore to Rotterdam, are further proof of the rise in activity levels in oil & gas exploration seen since the end of 2011.

Dockwise's Black Marlin, image courtesy Dockwise

The contract win for Dockwise Vanguard underlines our clients’ recognition by of the advantages of a vessel of the scale and capacity of Dockwise Vanguard. Spar buoys were an asset class that we identified as potential for this vessel and consequently I am excited that the Aasta Hansteen spar buoy contract is the first to materialize of those prospects we are discussing with clients for the post 2013 period.

We are actively pursuing several short term business opportunities and as before actively tendering for T&I projects in various important regions.  As a result we are confident of further increases in backlog in due course.”

Photo courtesy EUROGATE

The first four container handling gantry cranes for the EUROGATE Container Terminal Wilhelmshaven, Germany’s only deep-water container port, arrived Tuesday morning aboard the ZMPC’s Zhenhua 23 after a two month journey from Shanghai.

The massive Super-Post Panamax container cranes are capable of handling vessels up to 25 container rows wide, meaning the cranes, and port, will be able to accommodate the world’s largest containerships — Maersk’s “Triple E” class containerships will measure just 23 container rows wides.

Each crane weighs in at 1,750 tons with a usable jib length of 69 meters and a load bearing capacity of 120 tons.

Photo courtesy EUROPORT

Container Terminal Wilhelmshaven has ordered a total of 16 of these massive gantry cranes that will eventually line the Wilhelmshaven quay wall.  The first phase of development, which is expected to go into operation by August of this year, included the order of eight of these cranes that will span a 1,000m section.  A second container vessel carrying four more cranes for the first phase of development is expected to depart from Shanghai soon.

“We view these container cranes as an investment in the future,” said Marcel Egger, managing director of EUROGATE Container Terminal Wilhelmshaven GmbH & Co. KG and member of the EUROGATE Group management. “Currently the world’s biggest container vessel with a load capacity of 15,550 TEUs has 22 container rows on deck, while all other mega carriers, including the 18,000-TEU ship on order have 23 container rows on deck.”

The container gantries will be moved ashore one by one during the coming weeks and made ready for trial operation.

Image courtesy Damen Shipyards

Recently, two Damen Stan Tugs 2608, the Ibrahim 1 and the Jacques, were shipped from the anchorage of Halong Bay, Haiphong (Vietnam) to Casablanca by the Atlantic Winter, an 800t lifting capacity HLV chartered by Danish Heavy Lift carrier Thorco from Reederei Heino Winter.

After having taken the necessary preparations and rigging of the lifting gear, both tugs were nicely loaded into their prepositioned cradles on deck in a two day operation.

STu 2608 Ibrahim Tugboat, image courtesy Damen

The tugs were ordered by JL Tug and Fedala Tug. Both are Moroccan, privately owned, maritime services companies that have long-time relationships with Damen Shipyards.

The Ibrahim 1 will be operated by JL Tug in the Port of Jorf Lasfar and the Jacques will be operated by Fedala Tug in the Port of Mohammedia.

Heavy Lift Vessel Details – MV Atlantic Winter

At 1253 feet (382m) in length, and 384 feet (117m) at the beam, this massive ship will have a footprint twice as large as the Emma Maersk.  Eight diesel generators will provide 95MW of power to 12 azimuth-mounted thrusters and for all operational needs.

This ship was uniquely designed with the ability to deconstruct aging offshore oil production structures, particularly those found in the North Sea, as well as for high capacity pipelay operations.

USS Antietam and the USS Carl Vinson battlegroup (US Navy photo)

On the bow of the Pieter Schelte is a unique system that allows her to latch on to a topsides structure and conduct a 48,000 ton maximum lift to separate this structure from the supports below that reach down to the sea floor.  To put this in perspective, 48,000 tons is about 5 times as heavy as a Ticonderoga-class Cruiser.

Once the topsides removal is complete, the ship will then turn 180 degrees and a powerful array of high capacity cantilever cranes will lift the steel “jacket” truss off the bottom and lay it flat on the aft deck.  This system will have the capacity to lift even the largest steel structures in the North Sea, the location of her primary mission once commissioned in 2013.

As a dynamically-positioned pipelay vessel, the Pieter Schelte will have a 2,000 ton tension capacity, twice that of the Allseas Solitaire, the current world record holder for pipelay capacity.  She will have the capacity to lay concrete-coated steel trunklines nearly 6 feet in diameter from her stern.

Video Flyby Of The Pieter Schelte

Click here to view the embedded video.

Decommissioning An Oil Platform

Pieter Schelte Decommissioning of an oil rig

For more videos of the Pieter Schelte visit Allseas’ movie gallery. To view other offshore behemoths visit gCaptain’s Heavy Lift section.

FJELL transports a jackup rig for Saipem, image courtesy Fairstar Heavy Transport N.V.

Fairstar Heavy Transport N.V. (FAIR) has been awarded a contract by Hercules Offshore (NASDAQ:HERO) to transport the jack-up drilling rig Hercules 185 from Pascagoula, Mississippi to West Africa in the First Quarter of 2012 on board Fairstar’s open stern, semi-submersible vessel FJELL.  The 185 had been transported from Gabon to Pascagoula by Fairstar earlier this year after it had sustained damage off Gabon.

The contract value of this transport is USD $2.6 million.

The FJELL is currently underway to Malta where it will load the Northern Offshore rig ENERGY EXERTER in the Grand Harbour in January. After discharging the ENERGY EXERTER in Northern Europe, FJELL will sail to the Gulf of Mexico to load the Hercules 185.

Chris Muilwijk, Team Leader of Fairstar’s Client Services Group stated:

“Fairstar is looking forward to work again with Jim Stevens of High Seas Maritime Services and the operations team at Hercules Offshore. The Hercules 185 was safely transported by the FJELL to Pascagoula earlier this year and our crew on board the FJELL is committed to returning the rig to West Africa in 2012 safely and securely.”

Philip Adkins, Fairstar’s CEO has updated Fairstar’s fleet utilization for 2012, stating: “Fleet utilization for 2012 continues to improve. FJORD will discharge the Oando rig RESPECT, sail to Angola to load the CLOV FPSO components for DSME and then commence its multi-voyage contract for Gorgon. FJELL is now fully booked for the First Quarter of 2012. The FJELL will still be available for work in Alaska in April through September under the terms of our agreement to transport the Agrium fertilizer plant modules to Nigeria. However, in the event we do not receive the first contract installment for FJELL in February, we intend to pursue other transportation options for the FJELL in that period. In October, FJELL will commence its multi-voyage contract for Gorgon, joining FJORD and FORTE on a series of voyages from Northern Asia to Barrow Island, Australia.”

Hercules was unavailable for comment.

Part 1 of an exclusive gCaptain Interview with Intermarine’s CEO, Andre Grikitis, and CFO, Michael Dumas.

By Jack Mylott, Partner, Flagship Management

JM: Andre, Michael, thank you for joining us today.  Let’s kick this off with an overview of Intermarine and your operations. 

AG:  We are the largest break-bulk project cargo carrier based in the US.  Our headquarters are in New Orleans, and our largest office is in Houston where the majority of our clients are in a radius of 100 miles.  We have a 90-acre industrial terminal in Houston, which is the busiest project cargo terminal in the United States.  At that facility, we have rail siding, truck delivery, barge docks, and mobile cranes.  From there we operate about 250 voyages per year, primarily within the Americas and Latin America.

Venezuela, Trinidad, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Suriname, Guyana, Argentina, Brazil are our core and we have a high frequency of sailings and strong market share in all of those trades.  We carry break bulk, project and heavy lift cargo, and we do have some container capability for projects.

Image courtesy Intermarine

Our core fleet has 3 generations of vessels.  Our first series were 2×200 for a combined of 400-ton lifting capacity.  Four of those now are US-flagged, followed by another similar ship that was only really upgraded and tweaked to a 2×250… there are 6 of those.

Now the larger version, a new class we dubbed the F-class, has been specially configured for being able to carry very large and over-dimensional pieces, and has no line-of-sight issues.  These vessels have a capacity of 2×400-ton cranes for an 800-ton lifting capacity.  They are the largest in our fleet and are 14k DWT.   One of them is operating under the US-flagged fleet for a total of five US-flagged vessels.

The EPC companies [Engineering, Procurement, and Construction], Oil, Gas, Mining are the industries where a majority of our clients are operating in.  We have contracts with many of the suppliers to these industries, and as projects are built, we supply the infrastructure.

We do the same thing on a global basis.

We traded actively in the trans-Pacific trades to Asia and we’ve had services on an intra-Asia basis from north Asia (Japan, Korea, China) into India and the Persian Gulf region.  We trade with both Foreign-flagged and US-flagged assets and have a high concentration of heavy lift vessels between 400 and 800-ton lifting capacity.

The main supply of cargoes for this comes from Ex-Im Bank-financed lending to buyers of US goods.

I think it’s well known that the president has established a goal of doubling US exports in his inauguration speech.  Ex-Im, in fact, has turbo-charged its lending, which I think has been particularly successful in the current environment.  They have more than doubled their lending over the last two years.

They continue to grow, and we’ve grown with them.

I think from the point of view of a successful government program, the bank doesn’t cost taxpayers anything, produces jobs, manufacturing jobs, and jobs on the waterfront that go with moving the cargo.  When you consider that we’ve more than doubled our fleet with the expansion of Ex-Im, there is a direct relationship there, and there are good-paying seagoing jobs associated with this program as well.

From a point of view of anybody I think reading an article of what has been working, and frankly what could use more turbo-charging, in my opinion, Ex-Im Bank lending has been extremely successful.  My view is that program should be expanded.  Regrettably, the current Chairman, Fred Hochberg, who’s been very proactive and engaging, has not been able to add sufficient staff to promote the lending to the level that I think they could.  Simply because, like other government agencies, he’s constrained by budget issues.

Our view is that the government should be prudent and somehow working out exceptions to some of these because this is certainly a non-partisan viewpoint about what works and exactly what the country needs.  That is a very important part of what we see as a potential growth area for our economy and our business.

Our services are essentially customized to fit the needs of our clients.  Meaning while we’re consistent in our sailings, the same ship does not sail the same route, or call on the same ports on a consistent basis.  We are tailoring and customizing voyages to optimize client’s needs.  The focus of our business is not about the hardware.  Essentially, while we obviously need and maintain a core fleet of vessels, and we are normally operating 25 plus vessels at any given time, our business is a service business and what we aim to do is to really satisfy the needs of clients and make ourselves useful to their transportation needs.  The fact we’ve been able to provide that sort of expertise and consistency over time has led to what I would call a very strong brand.

What we provide is certainty and reliability in a business that of course has a lot of moving parts, and for many of the projects that our clients are involved in, the lowest cost in transportation does not necessarily end up being the best value.

The value of projects getting up and running on time, or keeping running, is much more important than some difference in freight.  What we try to do is manage our schedules to ensure that we are delivering what we promised, and I think that having done so consistently has led to a high degree of client retention.

And it’s not just A-to-B transport…

We provide other services as required.  What’s important to our clients, among other things, is that they also want timely, accurate documentation because everything may go very well, but if they can’t bank their document on time, then people are obviously not going to be happy.  Everybody in our company is involved in the cargo life cycle in some way.

We maintain a very strong corporate culture which I think is evident to the clients, and considering the kind of turmoil that the shipping markets are often in, I think that stability, consistency, and reliability are really the important ingredients for us to continue to grow and develop our business further.

JM: You touched on one or two things as far as what is sparking some of the growth such as the Ex-Im Bank financing.  What are the key factors that are driving the requirements for the services you’re offering?

AG:  On a macro basis, there are a few things.  Keep in mind that the Ex-Im are cargoes only emanating out of the US.  Clearly multi-nationals today operate a lot differently than they did.  Where previously, a particular supplier of cargo would be quoting a cargo out of one area, today, the multi-nationals may quote that product out of 3 separate locations.  You may be quoting a cargo into someplace in Brazil, and it may be produced in Europe, the US, India, or China.

So, the complexity of our business has clearly expanded over time, and there are a number of factors that influence that.  The macro picture on how companies are doing business is a big part of that.  Ex-Im is an important US initiative, if you will, but in terms of overall cargo movement on a global scale, it’s certainly not that large.  You’re talking about a small number of vessels being occupied with Ex-Im, the US fleet of course is not large, shipping is not a valued industry in the United States.  It’s clearly not been in the forefront really on any level, so it makes our business more complicated to communicate and to have others understand the value of it.

On a global basis, you’re talking about the macro picture, where infrastructure development continues in more places than it’s ever taken hold before.  Whereas maybe 20 or 30 years ago, you would have the oil patch building in the Persian Gulf, and perhaps West Africa, but today, you have projects really all over the world as all the Asian countries continue to build infrastructure.  Certainly it’s ramped up in the Americas on a continuous basis as well.  West Africa has expanded, so there is more activity on a much larger scale as the world industrializes.  Of course, to industrialize, it comes back to the raw materials required and you see the booming economies of places like Brazil and Australia who are involved in the producing commodities required for manufacturing the materials required for further industrial growth.

Again, I think the industrialization on a worldwide basis is requiring more carriage of specialized cargoes and I think that’s driven the multi-purpose, heavy lift sector over the past decade.

Please check back in with us soon for Part 2 of this interview…