By George Lauriat, AJOT The WCAPN (WCA Project Network) held its 6th Annual Conference in Antwerp, Belgium at the Crowne Plaza Antwerpen Hotel, May 24-26, 2012. The three-day conference attracted over 120 attendees from around the globe. While the 2012 conference featured the same one-on-one meetings, which characterize all WCA events, a new wrinkle was added to the agenda. A panel discussion (see photo) moderated by Dan March, the group’s Communication Director, featured representatives from a variety of project cargo service sectors. As expected with such a diverse panel, the topics were wide ranging including everything from near term forecasts for both air and ocean freight markets to the potential impact of “General Average” on project cargo. Although a majority of the panel represented industry sectors, Andy Kers, General Manager of the Steder Group, represented the WCAPN membership while Gert Geevel of Huisman Equipment was the sole shipper on the panel. On the heavy lift shipping side, Joerg Roehl, COO of Hansa Heavy Lift and Alexander Schnitger, Key Account Manager for Rickmers explained the contrasting services and answered questions on freight rates and market conditions. For Hansa Heavy, Roehl also remarked that the legacy of Beluga was noted but Hansa didn’t rise like the Phoenix from the ashes of Beluga but more from the ground nearby. Hansa, which operates very specialized heavy lift vessels on what amounts to spot business, was contrasted to the more flexible Rickmers ships that operate a two-loop round-the-world liner style operation with inducements. The Rickmers vessels handle both general break bulk cargo and project freight. By contrast, the Hansa ships are highly specialized to carry oversized and out of gauge type freight that require considerable engineering to transport. Both Schnitger and Roehl said that the current market is soft and didn’t expect much of a swing upward in freight rates and demand before the second half of 2013. They were asked what causes ocean freight rates to climb? Roehl said it was mostly a supply and demand issue, but elements, such as bunker fuel prices, also had an influence. On the air cargo side of the business both Richard Smith at Air Partners and Giorgio Monti and Lesley Cripps from Chapman Freeborn discussed the future of availability of the Antonov 124s, which are already in short supply and running out of life. Monti pointed out that while the Antonovs get most of the ink, the Illyushins II-76 actually provides most of the lift. All the panel members agreed that in the near future, the amount of lift available could be in short supply and push rates upwards. Another aspect of the air-freight portion of the panel discussion revolved around the question “why use an air charterer?” Monti said that the main advantage to employing an air charter company is that with a large number of aircraft in their portfolio an air charterer can mix and match planes, routes and freight, keeping the costs down by reducing empty legs. Nearly all the panelist believed that the project cargo market could heat up soon. They pointed out that right now Brazil, with the construction for the 2016 summer Olympics, FIFA 2014 World Cup and FIFA 2013 Confederations Cup, along with the emerging offshore oil and gas sector has made the country ground zero for the project cargo business. Cripps, whose expertise is in the oil & gas sectors, pointed out that globally the sector is already heating up with a number of major fields set to be developed. Giorgio Monti-Chapman Freeborn, Lesely Cripps-Chapman Freeborn, Richard Smith-Air Partners, Andy Kers-Steder Group, Gert Geeve-Huisman Equipment, Joerg Roehl, Hansa Heavy Lift, Alexander Schnitger-Rickmers Line, Angus Galbraith-FP Marine Risks, Dan March-WCA