Raymond Fisch, Senior Vice President Strategic Projects, BBC Chartering dropped in to PES to bring us up to date on the latest news from this no. 1 global, heavy-lift specialist. Despite the volume in increased traffic, planning diligence, customer care and quality are never compromised.
PES: Welcome back to PES Wind magazine. Thanks for talking with us. For our new readers would you like to begin by explaining a little about the background of BBC Chartering and how you currently serve the wind industry?
Raymond Fisch: Thank you. BBC Chartering goes back some 20 years and in that time significantly shaped the segment of industrial transport solutions for a variety of industries.
We feel privileged to have supported so many projects in the energy, resource and infrastructure sector worldwide and of being a trusted partner of the global project shipping community.
Since the beginning of the green revolution BBC Chartering has also evolved as leading carrier, for the global wind industry. With our current fleet of 180 vessels, there is no trading request we cannot match, giving our customers highest value through flexibility, reliability and performance in project shipping.
PES: Is the wind industry an expanding sector for you?
RF: The transport volumes in the wind energy sector keep growing and we see a good flow of business, however the current shipping market is difficult and we need to win our points against other competitors in this sector.
Many of these go after this business as a short term strategy only, seeking to fill their ships under demoralising terms. Sometimes it seems easily forgotten that quality carriers, such as BBC Chartering, also invest a great deal of resources to respond to sophisticated customer demands, with quality solutions all over the world.
PES: We see that you have been working on the Cape Sharp Tidal Project, can you tell us about this project? What it is, where it is situated, your involvement etc.?
RF: The Cape Sharp Tidal project is a major tidal power plant in the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia, Canada. In their ongoing effort of optimising power solutions at Cape Sharp Tidal, the joint venture partners Emera Inc. and OpenHydro wanted to further upgrade their tidal array and sought a solution that would enable them to move and transfer, a set of turbine and subsea base, from Pictou to St. John during October 2016.
The heavy-lift vessel BBC Emerald was chartered in to assist this project. The vessel is a 14.300 dwt heavy-lifter which has 2x 450mt lifting capacity. Due to the overall requirements of the project, this vessel was the ideal candidate to work in the designated loading and unloading locations in the Bay of Fundy.
