Rickmers-Linie, the heavylift, breakbulk and project cargo specialist based in Hamburg, has seen indications that the challenging months of financial crisis have been overcome – with wind power transport identified as one of the defining drivers of the upturn. PES takes a closer look at the company and its wind-optimised fleet.
Gerhard Janssen, Director Marketing and Sales for Rickmers-Linie, explains: “In our opinion, prospects for future projects are very positive. During the crisis, the most pressing problem was that financing issues were holding up projects but we have seen a number of indicators recently that projects put on hold in the past year will be reactivated shortly.”
As Janssen points out, the energy sector will provide great impetus for the heavylift sector. “The energy industry in general has been rather resilient to the crisis anyway, and as a consequence, we are expecting the wind farm, fossil energy and nuclear power sectors to bring strong volumes that need to be shipped. Furthermore, the oil and gas industry is currently picking up and the US to Asia trade is strong as well.”
In addition, Rickmers-Linie says that it sees other projects currently being negotiated and expects these to materialize soon. This cargo is likely to generate an increasing demand for space in due time.
The governmental stimulus packages initiated during the first months of the crisis have also had a substantial impact. There are a number of infrastructural projects likely to take place within the next year and the BRIC economies can be expected to create significant growth in the breakbulk sector. This is good news for the heavylift and breakbulk industries already, but as Janssen points out, there is another positive influence:
