Excerpt: "The project market, particularly in the oil and mining sectors, is booming and I don’t see it letting up unless there is some unforeseen disaster," comments Dennis Devlin, director of BDP Project Logistics’ Houston office.

He points out that many EPCs are now fabricating more and more plant and equipment in China, Brazil and India. BDP holds a Class A license in China and is now handling increasing volumes of heavy lift cargo from the country.

Intermarine is the managing agent of the vessel operating companies Industrial Maritime Carriers (USA), Industrial Maritime Carriers Worldwide, US Ocean, Linea Naviera Paramacont and West Coast Industrial Express. The group also includes Industrial Terminals in Houston. These carriers operate modern multi purpose vessels servicing heavy industry construction projects, power generation plants, oil field and mining developments.

Intermarine offers an array of regular services between North America, South America and Asia. Its primary US loading port is Industrial Terminals in Houston.Intermarine has at its disposal one of the largest and most flexible fleet of multipurpose, heavy lift and project cargo carrying vessels in the world. Together, the companies control more than 20 vessels with cargo capacities ranging from 6,500 to 18,500cum and heavy lift capacity up to 400 tonnes. As a result, Intermarine is one the largest carriers of project and breakbulk cargoes from the US.

The core of the fleet comprises about 20 vessels featuring seven C-Class 8,000dwt vessels with two 200 tonnes cranes combinable for 400 tonnes lifts plus six D Class newbuildings. The new vessels are similar to the C-Class, except for having slightly greater heavy lift capacity of two 250 tonnes cranes combinable for 500 tonnes lifts.

Industrial Terminals in Houston has recently completed a new deepwater dock for project and heavy lift vessels. Designed to the heaviest load standards of any facility in the region, the dock features two gantry mounted cranes, direct shipside rail access and is capable of handling vessels 150m long and draughts up to 10m. To handle heavy lift cargo, the dock has been engineered to support a sustained, overall load of 1,000lbs/sq. ft. This is equal to the highest rated docks in the port of Houston and 10 times the load capacity of modern US interstate highways. The new heavy lift dock has direct rail access engineered for load factors that exceed current rail industry standards and turning rail that can accommodate the largest heavy lift railcars.

Industrial Terminals, located on the Houston ship channel, is the largest project cargo terminal in the US and the primary loadcentre for all Intermarine’s North American services.