SRM has interviewed Emanuel Grimaldi, “at the helm” of one of Italy’s outstanding ship-owning groups.
The Grimaldi Group is a full-fledged multinational company active in the logistics sector, specialised in roll-on/roll-off vessels, car carriers, cruises, and ferries. It supplies integrated logistics services, based on maritime transport, to the most important vehicle manufacturers. Every year, the ships of the Grimaldi fleet call at over 120 ports in 50 countries of the Mediterranean, North Europe, West Africa, and North and South America.

In Italy the shipping agent has the function of a supervising agent, an important role that intends to represent the shipowner with the maritime authority. An agent is the connecting link between the Harbour Master, the ship and the Port Authority regarding all the necessary procedures on arrival and departure and for the loading and unloading operations. However it is not only this, we have carried out this interesting interview with Michele Pappalardo, President of the National Federation of shipping agents to explore the many features that characterise the role of these professionals – which have a major presence in Italy with about 600 agencies – also it enables an understanding of their importance within the whole logistic supply chain, what we discovered was both intriguing and valuable.

Mare Straetmans is currently the managing director of PortXL, the World Port Accelerator. The Port of Rotterdam is the innovation hub for port business around the world. PortXL is aiming to develop an ecosystem for port startups worldwide. PortXL focusses on scouting the best startups, and bring them to Rotterdam for three months, to find their first clients. This way building the port business of the future.

We have interviewed the Vice President of Contship Italia, a company whose core businesses are the operations and investments in port terminals and all the container-related services, especially intermodal transport, maintenance and storage which bring added value to the company’s core business. With Marco Simonetti we have discussed the competitiveness and the economic scenarios, besides the more obvious talk about the company’s strategies.

This interview was released during the scientific mission carried out by SRM in Hamburg in order to have a better understanding of the strategies and problems affecting the maritime sector of Germany, which is considered one of the top European country as for maritime logistics. In particular, we interviewed Dennis Kögeböhn (DK), Partner at EMBA shipping & Logistics, HPC – Hamburg Port Consulting GmbH, who gave an “itinerant” interview in the HHLA terminal of Hamburg port providing valuable information about its structure and functioning.

Maersk Italy operates in the maritime shipping of containerised goods to and from the rest of the world. In Italy it operates in 12 ports, and is currently establishing, together with MSC and CMA CGM, the P3 Network alliance, which will bring about important changes in the global balances of the maritime transport and port sectors. We discussed this, and many other topics, with Orazio Stella, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, who is always available to share with us his views on issues relating to the all-important subject of logistics.

In 2015, SRM carried out a scientific mission in Hamburg with the aim of gaining a better knowledge of the strategies and the issues regarding the maritime sector in a country like Germany, which is considered one of the top European countries as for maritime logistics. During the mission, SRM interviewed Bengt van Beuningen, Head of Communication & Information, Port of Hamburg Marketing Regd. Assn.

In 2015, SRM carried out a scientific mission in Hamburg with the aim of gaining a better knowledge of the strategies and the issues regarding the maritime sector in a country like Germany, which is considered one of the top European countries as for maritime logistics. During the mission, SRM interviewed top players in the industry like Dirk Max Johns, Managing Director of VDR (Verband Deutscher Reeder), the industry association representing the German shipowners.

In Italy, when talking about ports, usually one lingers on the territory where the port authority is located, failing to analyze in depth the surrounding and smaller ports which are nevertheless important on a strategic and economic point of view. One of these realities is the third port of Campania, the Port of Torre Annunziata, which is also internationally oriented. This and other topics were discussed with Giuseppe Rocco, General Director of SOLACEM Spa, a company of integrated port logistics, operating since 1967 in the port of Torre Annunziata, more specifically in the fields of debarking operations, the handling of cereals and flours and of their distribution in the south of Italy and in the Mediterranean in general.

Windward is a maritime data and analytics company that offers specialized data and services to government agencies and private corporations. We collect and analyze over 200 million data points per day. We convert this massive amount of data into information that our clients can act on, in real time. The Windward team, 75 and growing, is comprised of data scientists and shipping experts who work together to shed light on what’s really happening at sea.

We have carried out an interesting interview with Jonathan C. Williams, General Manager of FONASBA to explore the role of Ship Brokers and Agents in the international context.

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