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Tareq Jarour: eGlobExpo’s first International Conference will be in May in Egypt

By: Magdy Sadek

 The first international conference “eGlobExpo” on e-Commerce, e.Logistics, entrepreneurship, and investment will be held in the new administrative capital of Egypt under the slogan of the digital economy and investing in logistics

Provided that the second edition of the conference and its activities will be in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, due to the great economic renaissance it bears, the opening of investment prospects in it, and the vision. About the conference halls, the meeting was with Tareq Jarour, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Trio LLC, the organizing company

 Can you tell us more about the activities of your next conference in the administrative capital of Egypt next May?!

The conference will serve as a table for presenting experiences and ideas for projects that have not been realized on the ground and need more experience, encouragement, and financing, as well as emerging, small, and medium projects that seek development without deviating from their true goal for which they were established and correcting their paths

The conference is a unique experience as it will bring together all e-brands from around the world to learn about the latest eBiz-focused tactics and strategies, integrate with each other, and find partners with solutions to help them take their business to the next level with successful digital transformation.

What is the idea behind the slogan “Invest in Logistics”?!

We emphasize the importance of investing in the logistics sector by the private sector, especially since it is managed globally through this sector. As changes are instantaneous in this sector, whether in technologies or the prices of these services, which requires flexibility in determining the profit margin on the one hand and on the other hand the acquisition or merger with other entities in this sector, which is a key factor for building large economic entities facing challenges and market fluctuations.

And as I said, the private sector has the flexibility to conclude such deals on behalf of the government sector, which is governed by many local or international factors such as responsibility, commitment, bureaucracy, and bearing the burdens of conflicts or market fluctuations. Therefore, we find today, whether in Egypt or Saudi Arabia, interest in investment and the private sector, as well as emerging companies and small and medium enterprises that represent the mainstay of the national economy.

We affirm that the forum will be the first technological and logistical conference that presents innovative technological solutions in the field of logistics, highlighting mechanization and digitization, and reducing the cost of commercial and industrial solutions and logistics industries, so that there is a digital infrastructure for smart manufacturing so that it is in line with the serious challenges with the fourth industrial revolution in terms of artificial intelligence, automation, the Internet of things and the block Chain and others

Why did you choose to launch the first edition in Egypt? And why was your concern for the Saudi Kingdom to be the second stop for that event?!

Egypt and Saudi Arabia are two main stations in the world of trade and business locally, regionally, and globally, because of the logistical and ports infrastructure that both countries enjoy also a geo-strategic location is an important point for the Arab trade movement together.

The conference is a global forum on Egyptian soil, which includes all international companies specialized in the field of digital transformation, as the conference represents a valuable in addition to the Egyptian economy and contributes to the integration of emerging companies.

The forum represents an opportunity to present investment opportunities in Egypt and Saudi Arabia in a field that is the backbone of the trade, which is logistics and sea, dry, and land ports, and put it up for dialogue to support the idea of ​​the logistics center, which is the strategy of the two countries, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia 2030, to become the largest logistics center in the region.

What will make the conference unique considering the global challenges in the logistics industry? What are the most important topics and axes that will be raised through its activities?!

The conference agenda includes a variety of sessions that allow participants to discuss new industry trends, listen to expert opinions on key issues, and learn about new products and consumer needs, and study market changes in the coming period and its ongoing challenges.

The program also includes discussion sessions related to all fields of industry, where the conference will hold seminars, workshops, and round tables on many financial, economic, and commercial issues in Egypt and other countries of the world, especially since the world, including Egypt and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, are interested in e. commerce, which now represents a large percentage from the global trade movement and the interest of the private sector and the increasing growth in e-commerce companies, which are witnessing a significant increase, whether in Egypt or Saudi Arabia, as it reaches ten times every year, which makes Egypt one of the largest dynamic markets in the world. As well as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Do the activities of the conference include many other topics such as opportunities for emerging companies to meet with financing institutions?

The Conference eGlobExpo Presents the future of digital transformation in the world and learns about the latest Technologies and insights from leading brands and service providers to help companies build a successful digital transformation strategy.

Also, the event includes thousands of professionals and experts from all fields and solution providers around the world, which provides an opportunity for entrepreneurs and startup owners to communicate with them and learn from their previous experiences so that their businesses can advance globally under the shadow of global competitions, and supporting them, whether by direct financing or financing through the acquisition of stakes in these companies, especially since digital transformation is the future of all businesses and industries.

Digital infrastructure is one of the most important themes of the conference and the transfer of modern technology, whether for companies that will start or start-ups. To what extent will this be announced or implemented through the activities of the conference?

The conference represents an opportunity for partnership, merger, exchange of supplies and digital data in the field of e-commerce, logistics technology, digital dealing, and billing to other electronic transactions, which means the transfer of these modern technologies to the small and medium companies in the Egyptian market

 Funding is one of the most important problems for startups. To what extent do you have solutions to it?

Funding has many faces, direct financing, or financing through the acquisition of shares in these companies. This is an essential aspect. Large and international institutions have expressed their interest and willingness to take practical steps in this regard.

We are interested in e.commerce, one of the most important axes and objectives of the conference. To what extent did this interest come in this file, which has become the focal point of the global trade movement?

Indeed, e.commerce represents one of the most important components of the global trade movement in light of our entry into the world of digitization, which has become part of the “life” movement now, and it is a growing trade in the world, as it represents 2 billion online marketers in the world. only in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, more than 80 billion Saudi riyals in 2021 Only an increase of 14% from 2020, and in the latest report of UNCTAD, it is expected that global trade will reach a record level of about 32 trillion US dollars for the year 2022, as it is the “future” of the global trade movement, which is witnessing great growth in the future.

 Why did you become interested in the land transport and multimodal transport sector?! Didn’t this sector, whether in Egypt or the Saudi Kingdom, receive the required attention?!

The land and multimodal transport sector are a real “lung” to serve the logistics sector. In Egypt, the Egyptian government has taken care of establishing the infrastructure for this vital sector and linking it, whether to seaports or dry ports, as a logistical extension that complements the supply chain.

In Saudi Arabia, according to Vision 2030, the interest in these sectors came as a strategic importance for the trade movement, as the total lengths of future railways were increased, and the implementation of the “land bridge” project is one of the most important components of the strategy.

Connecting the Kingdom’s ports on the coasts of the Arabian Gulf and the Red Sea, with modern logistical centers, centers for economic activities, industrial cities, and mining activities, which will contribute to promoting sustainable development, creating a safe and highly efficient link network and relieving pressure on land roads.

It will also create an efficient supply and transport system within the Kingdom. Its importance and efficiency will increase by linking it, in the future, to the Gulf network.

 

 

 

 

 

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Oil and Product Logistics in 2022 – Radical Changes in Routes, Ports and Freight

By Marek Grzybowski

The year 2022 brought radical changes to the transport routes of crude oil and products. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, importers experienced a record increase in freight rates for operators of oil tankers and its products. The local war changed the macroeconomic picture of the world economy.

 

Last year marked a new era in the global logistics of crude oil and petroleum products. December 5 last year With the extension of the European Union’s sanctions package and the entry into force of the EU ban on trade in Russian oil, a new era of oil at sea and on land has begun.

– The year ends with critical macroeconomic challenges regarding the future of VLCC and crude oil freight rates. There is uncertainty about the evolution of the oil supply given the current increase in oil demand and the impact on trade flows, as Europe continued to rely on Russian oil imports until the end of the third quarter, says Sue Terpilowski of SeaNews, using data compiled by Signal Ocean.

In 11 months of 2022 [excluding December], the global supply of crude oil in sea transport increased by 8.6% y/y to 1,866.8 million tonnes, excluding cabotage transport, Refinitiv experts calculated. This means higher demand than in the period January-November 2021 (1,718.3 million tonnes), but it was slightly lower than in the same period of 2019, when it amounted to 1,926.9 million tonnes.

As the geography of crude oil and petroleum product imports changes, fuel terminals in Polish ports play a greater role. We still imported 51% of crude oil from Russia to Poland (January-October 2022). Crude oil from outside this market also reached Poland by sea. The main suppliers were: Saudi Arabia (28%), Norway (8%), Great Great Britain (5%), USA (4%), Kazakhstan (3%), Guyana (1%), Nigeria (1%) – Forum Energii experts calculated.

More: Oil and Product Logistics in 2022

 

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Sea coal logistics in 2022. A radical change in supply routes

 

By Marek Grzybowski

Russia’s attack on Ukraine and the sanctions introduced by EU countries resulted in radical changes in coal transport chains in 2022 on a global scale. Polish ports also joined the new system of sea connections under the influence of decisive changes in the sources of coal acquisition on the international market. The bulk terminals of Gdańsk, Gdynia, Szczecin and Świnoujście quickly adapted their technical and organizational potential. Polish ports joined the transshipment of coal in import relations.

Periodic shortages of gas and oil on the international market resulted in increased demand for coal. Global coal consumption increased by 1.2% and reached a record level of demand in 2022, according to a report by the International Energy Agency (EIA).

A new record for coal consumption reached 8,025 million tonnes in 2022. This was slightly above the level of 2013, when 7,997 million tonnes were used for energy, industrial and consumption purposes. The lower demand growth in 2022 is largely a reaction to the economic slowdown in leading industrial regions, including China.

The World Economic Forum highlights that only “about a third of the world’s electricity generation capacity now comes from low-carbon sources, with 26% coming from renewables and about 10% from nuclear power. The other two-thirds come from fossil fuels that emit greenhouse gases, such as coal, gas and oil.”

Coal ships will sail for many more miles and ports will handle millions of tons of coal before economies switch to renewable or nuclear power.

More: Sea coal logistics in 2022

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Innovative Stena Line ferries on the Port Gdynia – Port Karlskrona sea highway

 

By Marek Grzybowski,

Stena Line launched the second innovative Ro-Pax for the Gdynia – Kalrlskrona sea highway in January 2023. It is an extension of the European land transport corridor Baltic – Adriatic, one of the most important European transport corridors of the TENT network.

  The new ferry was named STENA EBBA

 

 The naming ceremony for the Stena Ebba ferry in Karlskrona, Sweden, took place on January 11 this year.

– I give you the name Stena Ebba –  said Ulrica Messing, Blekinge Voivode Governor, at the ship’s christening, which took place at the Ferry Terminal in Karlskrona, Sweden. A bottle of champagne was smashed against the side by the ship’s godmother.

Ulrica Messing, the godmother of the Stena Ebba ferry, is a well-known Swedish politician. She was a member of the Swedish government from 1996 to 2006. She was the Minister of Infrastructure in 2002-2006. She is currently the provincial governor of the Blekinge region. The city of Karlskrona is the capital of the Blekinge region.

Ulrica Messing, voivode of the Blekinge region, Joanna Hofman, Polish ambassador in Stockholm, Emma Swahn Nilsson, president of the Karlskrona city council, Jacek Sadaj, president of the Port of Gdynia Authority, managing director of Stena Line Niclas Mårtensson and Anders Hermansson, director of the Swedish shipowners organization Svensk Sjöfart . Marek Kiersnowski, managing director of Stena Line Polska, hosted the ceremony.

Polish and Swedish Sea Motorway

The ceremony was attended by representatives of many Polish and Swedish companies from the maritime business, as well as local government and state institutions from Poland and Sweden, as well as members of the Baltic Sea and Space Cluster.

– Our new modern ferry Stena Ebba in the southern Baltic Sea is Stena Line’s response to the dynamically growing customer demand in an economic area that is still developing – said Niclas Mårtensson, Managing Director of Stena Line

Stena Ebba is one of the largest Ro-Pax ferries in service on the Baltic Sea. The ferry is 240 meters long. The ship has 3,600 m of load line and can accommodate 200 cargo units. The ship has room for 1,200 in 263 cabins. The interior of the ship was designed in the Scandinavian style. Panoramic windows allow you to observe the sea to the horizon.

Stena Ebba ferry – energy efficient ship

The Stena Ebba ferry is energy efficient ship thanks to its optimal hull design. MAK engines can be powered by 3 types of fuel. Marine low sulfur fuel, methanol and gas.

Wärtsilä aggregates with generators can also be used to propel the ship. Then the ferry sails like an electric ship. The ferry can be powered by electricity from the quay while in port. All these solutions reduce the emission of pollutants, CO2 and heat into the atmosphere.

– Today, with the inauguration of Stena Ebba on the Gdynia-Karlskrona service, as well as the earlier introduction of the sister ship Stena Estelle, we are starting a new stage in the development of our connection – said Marek Kiersnowski, Managing Director of Stena Line Polska.

Incorporating two innovative ferries into the Gdynia – Karlskrona service, Stena line offers carriers 7,200 m freight capacity to transport companies operating on the Baltic – Adriatic trans-European transport network and the TENT network.

– We offer our customers the most modern ferries of this type on the market. This will greatly improve the comfort of sea travel for our passengers and will enable a further increase in transport traffic. This is very important for our clients and regions in Poland and Sweden that we connect – emphasized Pedro Canchaya, Regional Travel Manager, Baltic Sea South and Baltic Sea North, Stena Line.

Port of Gdynia – a modern  public ferry terminal

– The Port of Gdynia has built a new public ferry terminal to increase the comfort of service for passengers and transport companies – emphasized Jacek Sadaj, President of the Management Board of the Port of Gdynia Authority.

The new ferry terminal in Gdynia provides comfortable conditions for servicing passengers, trucks and ships. Passengers board the ferry through a fully sheltered passage. Trucks, buses and passenger cars enter the ferry via convenient entrances. Ships can be supplied with electricity from a special charging station. The 240 m long ship conveniently docks at the quay.

– The construction of the Public Ferry Terminal is the largest investment implemented in the Port of Gdynia for almost 50 years. The new Public Ferry Terminal makes it possible to handle much larger passenger ferries. The terminal increases the port’s handling capacity in terms of ro-ro and ferry services, says Kazimierz Koralewski, vice-president of the Port of Gdynia Authority S.A.

The transfer of Stena Line’s operations to the Public Ferry Terminal in Gdynia enables us to introduce much larger ships. The new terminal allows vessels up to 240 m long, such as E-Flexer class ships, to be moored there. The first of them, Stena Estelle was start the service from Gdynia this summer – says Marek Kiersnowski,  Managing Director of Stena Line Polska.

Stena Line  – 25,000 sailings a year

Stena Line is a Swedish ferry company established in 1962, headquartered in Gothenburg. It operates on 18 routes connecting 10 countries, operates 39 ferries making nearly 25,000 sailings a year. It employs over 5,000 employees. On average, annual transport amounts to: 7.6 million passengers, 1.7 million passenger cars and 2.2 million freight units (trucks, semi-trailers, etc.). Stena Line is an important part of the European logistics network and is constantly developing new intermodal solutions, combining rail, road and sea transport. Stena Line also plays an important role in tourism in Europe thanks to its extensive passenger operations.

Stena Line has been present in Poland for over a quarter of a century. Ferries with a characteristic red chimney connect Gdynia with Karlskrona in southern Sweden. Every year, several hundred thousand passengers travel this route using one of three ferries: a ship with a wide range of attractions for passengers, Stena Spirit, and two new E-Flexer class ferries, 240 m long, taking both passengers and freight. These are twin units named Stena Estelle, which started operating in September 2022, and Stena Ebba, which joined the fleet in January 2023.

Stena Line is part of the Stena AB Group, owned by the Olsson family. In addition to ferry transport, the group deals with i.a. shipping, oil extraction, recycling, real estate. The turnover of the entire group reaches 37 billion Swedish crowns per year. Stena AB employs approximately 16,000 people worldwide.

 Stena E-Flexer Ro-Pax:

  • Built in: 2022
  • Operation start: 02/01/2023
  • Length: 240 m
  • Draft: 6.4 m
  • Width: 28m
  • Freight capacity: 3600 m
  • Number of passengers: 1200
  • Number of cabins: 263

 

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BCG: How the Metaverse Will Remake Your Strategy

 

By Rony AbovitzSumit BanerjeeGuy GillilandChristy LiuEdwardo SackeyAlexey Timashkov, and Rob Trollinger

The metaverse is already a big part of business. It will only become more central.

As digital technologies move to the next stage of advancement—the metaverse—there are two questions companies should ask: How will the metaverse change our business? And how can we get ahead of the change and shape it to our advantage? This is our perspective on both.

The Data and Technology Universe

There’s plenty of debate about the definition of the metaverse, but we find it more useful to take a practical view and focus on the productive use cases that it enables. The metaverse is based on the convergence of multiple technologies and the proliferation of data and content, which combine to create value for users. In the case of consumers, the result might be a virtual-reality (VR) gaming platform, while for business it could be a machine-learning algorithm that incorporates multiple diverse data sets to provide better insights and improve decision making.

In this sense, the metaverse encompasses broad categories of technology (including computing, connectivity, artificial intelligence, and machine learning) that come together in rich ways to create new and unprecedented value. It’s an aircraft engine technician connecting via the company’s help line to an expert 3,000 miles away. It’s the digital twin of an electrical grid that highlights maintenance needs or security vulnerabilities. It’s a smartphone app that integrates with an augmented-reality-enabled windshield to serve up driving directions, which it feeds to the car’s self-driving algorithms. It’s the technology that enables emergency services to respond when a phone or watch belonging to an injured person automatically sends an SOS.

It’s hard to pinpoint where the metaverse ends. It is flourishing, in part, thanks to continuing advancements in technologies such as augmented reality (AR) and VR, big data, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and blockchain. Just as our understanding of the universe and what it encompasses has been vastly expanded by the Hubble space telescope, the nature of the metaverse is a work in progress. Were we able to define its boundaries today, some future technological advance would almost certainly cause us to reassess.

If the metaverse seems a bit amorphous, its use cases are easier to spot and are multiplying fast. (See Exhibit 1.) Many companies already see the metaverse as an opportunity to connect with consumers in new ways. But for both B2C and B2B enterprises, it really represents a new way to do business and an opportunity to reinvent everything from customer journeys to operational processes. We can point to dozens of use cases for companies in all sectors and industries—and the technology underlying these applications is still only in its infancy. Their impact ranges from greater convenience and efficiency (remote maintenance, for example) to the life-changing and disruptive (enhanced surgical assistance and in-home health care). The new use cases can lead not just to quicker and easier ways of doing things but to whole new industries and business models.

More: BCG Metaverse Services