ITJ 21-22/2022
If silence is golden, as the saying goes, then knowledgeable conversation must at least be silver. We tested this newly-coined adage for you by including no less than ten interviews in this issue of the ITJ – an in-house record. On top of this we offer you our reports from live events – be they conventions you could attend in person – they’re finally back again – or hybrid digital meetings.
In the end it’s the result that counts though. In these genuinely turbulent times (as we once again noticed in our comparative reviews in this issue), the women and men in charge of a broad variety of logistics firms and projects implement effective forward-looking solutions and strategies, to make sure their client services meet market demand, and to ensure their own success.
The spectrum includes XXL Translog, a project cargo operator navigating the tectonic shifts in Eastern Europe (see page 5 of our Special supplement); Damià Calvet, CEO of the port of Barcelona, who’s driving his gateway’s Asian strategy forward by establishing a South Korean logistics platform in the port (page 10); Titan Containers’ Layland Barker, who’s been building the brand’s global presence since 1987 (page 11); Ralf Brink, celebrating the 30-year history of his own shipping agency this year (page 13); and Andreas Goggi, pushing ahead with the digitalisation of his forwarding firm (page 23). This brings to mind what Professor Joseph Alois Schumpeter believed. “Innovation [...] is at the centre of practically all the phenomena [...] of economic life in capitalist society.”
Of course media conferences and symposia provide useful analyses of the present and pointers to the future too. The plethora of projects initiated by Duisport, the world’s largest inland port (page 17), for example; or investments by Hupac, a pan-European rail logistics enterprise (page 24), are impressive. The same can be said of the illustrious swathe of expert international and national panellist exchanging opinions at the Swiss Shippers’ Forum in Interlaken in April (pages 28–29). No single person has the panacea, of course, but there’s definitely no lack of original approaches.
The ITJ’s own global approach means we haven’t left out our usual analyses of today’s hot spots either – Ukraine, Chinese ports; nor developments in other regions. This issue thus also includes the latest insights from Iberia & Latin America (pages 31 ff).
The sagacious words of Pope John XXIII may serve to motivate us in these (European) spring days – “A thousand fears won’t destroy our hopes.”
Enjoy your read!
Christian Doepgen
Editor-in-chief
Read the Heavylift / Breakbulk Special supplement here.
