Mats Blixt, Executive Vice President Logistics Solutions South America, BBC Chartering and Gonzalo López Roldan, Commercial Executive, Montecon / Schandy Group, called in on PES to share their experience in working together in parts of South America. Their integrated solution has proved to be very successful.
PES: Welcome back to PES Wind magazine. Thanks for talking with us. For the benefit of our new readers would you like to begin by explaining a little about the background of BBC Chartering and the importance of the wind industry to you?
Mats Blixt: Thank you and likewise. It’s always a pleasure to talk about recent developments at BBC Chartering and
the value we can bring to global wind
power customers.
As you know, BBC Chartering is the market’s largest project carrier and the leading international wind energy cargo transporter. Our fleet of multipurpose and heavy lift vessels is employed for wind power developments worldwide. We currently operate a fleet of more than 140 vessels, and with that offer a total fleet capacity of more than 1.6m tons DWAT. All our vessels are equipped with cranes, some of which can lift up to 800mt.
PES: In our last interview you were experiencing a growth in the market, is this still the case?
MB: If we look at our cargo mix, wind power volumes have increased significantly over the past year and worldwide; however, Europe and South America denote strong relative growth in outbound cargo volumes. We think the market continues to be significant to the project shipping sector and we take pride in the fact that we are one of the most preferred global carriers in this field.
PES: We have heard that BBC Chartering are expanding into parts of South America, please could you expand on this: which countries, routes, how, etc?
MB: South America is not only an increasingly active outbound market with regards to wind power; an attractive inland market for renewable energy investments is also developing. Bolivia, Paraguay, the hinterland of Argentina and Brazil are becoming the subjects of an increasing number of concept studies, pre-feasibility and FEED studies.
We have tremendous experience and an excellent track record in serving South America. We have been supporting the market since we started back in 1997 and in the past year alone had about 900 port calls. It has always been one of our most important regions and we have a lot of local knowledge.
Hence, we are convinced that BBC Chartering is not only a partner for global ocean transport; we are also perfectly positioned to connect the dots for inland logistics in South America. This is the reason we teamed up with the Schandy Group, a regional market leader offering an unparalleled integrated service for any destination in these markets.
