As you can see from newsletter issue #69 and as announced earlier, GPLN has undergone a rebranding process, with a new corporate logo in red and blue. The red color represents fire and blood and is associated with energy, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love. The blue color signifies the sky and sea. It is often associated with stability and symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, truth, and heaven.
Drewry published recently in its multipurpose shipping forecaster report that rates will improve in the multipurpose and heavy lift shipping sector through 2019, fueled by rising volumes of project cargo traffic, but prospects thereafter are muted by an anticipated slowdown in world trade. The consultancy added that the rise in oil prices through the first half of 2018 boosted the multipurpose shipping market, a trend that is projected to continue during 2019. However, in the longer term, oil prices are expected to average under USD70 per barrel, limiting new project investments. As the USA and China move toward establishing some kind of trade truce, the short-term outlook is more optimistic. But the global economic outlook has deteriorated and continued uncertainty in Europe, largely due to Brexit, suggests that the sector is not recovering yet.
Our GPLN Annual General Meeting which took place for the second consecutive year at the Dorint Park Hotel in Bremen from May 18-20, 2019 was again a huge success. The high delegate attendance demonstrated once more the strength and quality of our network. We would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to the all participants, their partners, sponsors and speakers and hope that their attendance was rewarded with a lot of new business opportunities, friendships and a great experience. We appreciate the compliments we got from many of you for this well-organized AGM and a suitable hotel venue in a peaceful and save environment.
We would also like to take this opportunity to thank Wallenius Wilhelmsen Ocean for the organization of the RORO Competence Training Course in Bremerhaven which took place on May 18, 2019 and was attended by over 40 GPLN members.
The day after our AGM we moved to the nearby Breakbulk Europe Exhibition where we had company from several GPLN members at our GPLN booth. This year delegates from following companies have shared our stand (in alphabetical order): Baltkonta/Lithuania, Inter American Cargo Group/Argentina, ITM Transportation/Mexico, Logistics International/USA, Magellan Logistics/Kenya & Tanzania, Pfaff International/Germany, Pfaff Logistik/Russia, Terminal Logistics Services/Kazakhstan, Unishipping International/Bulgaria, Velocity Global Logistics/India, Wirtz Link Service/China and Wirtz Shipping & Company/Belgium.
Later this year in autumn we will travel to the United States of America to attend yet another Breakbulk Exhibition which takes place again in Houston, Texas, from October 8-10, 2019. We encourage GPLN members who are interested in joining our GPLN booth for this event to contact us now as space is limited.
We would also like to remind you that our next annual conference will take place from May 31 to June 2, 2020 in Casablanca, Morocco, just after Breakbulk Exhibition in Bremen, that some of our delegates can combine both events. More details will be announced in due time, but in the meantime please mark the date for our next annual conference.
