• BREAKBULK & PROJECT CARGO
  • April 24-26, 2024 | Hilton New Orleans Riverside, Louisiana

Janet Nodar

S&P Global

Senior Editor, Breakbulk, Project, and Heavy-Lift Shipping, Journal of Commerce

Janet Nodar is the Journal of Commerce's senior editor for breakbulk, project, and heavy-lift shipping. Based in Mobile, Alabama, she was previously a reporter and editor for Gulf Shipper, one of four regional weekly publications that were merged into the JOC in 2008, and later for JOC’s Breakbulk magazine. From 2013-2018, she was content director for Breakbulk Events & Media, including three years with ITE Group, which acquired the Breakbulk business in 2015. She rejoined the JOC in July 2018 to rebuild the company’s breakbulk and project cargo presence and chairs the Breakbulk & Project Cargo Conference in New Orleans. Nodar holds a master’s in English/creative writing and a bachelor’s in finance from the University of South Alabama.

Sessions With Janet Nodar

Wednesday, 19 April

  • 03:30pm - 05:30pm (CST) / 19/apr/2023 08:30 pm - 19/apr/2023 10:30 pm

    Shipper Roundtable - BY INVITATION ONLY FOR SHIPPERS (Only cargo owners are eligible to attend.)

    This exclusive, shipper-only discussion facilitated by JOC Senior Editor Janet Nodar will bring together breakbulk and project cargo shippers in an off-the-record meeting to exchange ideas and potential solutions to the numerous challenges confronting stakeholders in the North American supply chain, while learning what they expect to learn from the conference sessions and panelists over the coming two days. BY INVITATION ONLY FOR SHIPPERS (Only cargo owners are eligible to attend.)

Thursday, 20 April

  • 08:30am - 08:45am (CST) / 20/apr/2023 01:30 pm - 20/apr/2023 01:45 pm
  • 08:45am - 09:30am (CST) / 20/apr/2023 01:45 pm - 20/apr/2023 02:30 pm

    Keynote: A Brave New World — Geopolitics, Changing Alliances, and Energy Security

    The far-reaching effects of the COVID pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the energy transition continue to reshape geopolitics and upend long-held trade relationships. These effects also have kick-started a global pivot toward energy security, as concerns about source diversification and self-sufficiency intertwine with what was an already-accelerating move toward decarbonization. Does this period of tumultuous change mean that our former status-quo regime of political alliances and frictionless global trade has simply disappeared, leaving a state of anarchy? Laurence Allan, director of research, country risk analysis, and forecasting at S&P Global, expects to see disruption and instability ahead, but not a complete fracturing of the old order, particularly when it comes to relationships between the US, China, and other key players globally. “There will be cooperation in some areas and competition in others,” he said. What does this changing environment mean for the project and logistics supply chain, both near term and further out? In his keynote address Allan, who, in leading S&P Global's country risk regional team for Europe/CIS, directs analysis and forecasting of political and violent risks, including geopolitical and global themes, and their impacts on the business environment, will delve into the implications of this changing status quo for the breakbulk industry. 

  • 11:45am - 12:30pm (CST) / 20/apr/2023 04:45 pm - 20/apr/2023 05:30 pm

    From Fossil Fuels to Hydro: Pivoting Toward a New Generation of Projects

    While fossil fuels will continue to dominate energy generation for many years, a concurrent drive toward sustainability, decarbonization, and greener solutions is gathering strength and affecting the nature of project logistics. Political and institutional mandates for energy and supply-chain security, decarbonization, disrupted trade relationships, risk management, near-sourcing: A tsunami of market forces is shifting focus and direction for many project owners and the contractors and logistics service providers that work for them. In many cases, the skillsets and relationships formed in a traditional oil- and gas-focused environment must be transferred to new project types and rapidly changing trade lanes. What stays and what goes? Where are the opportunities? This panel of seasoned project logistics professionals will discuss what in this dynamic new world of opportunities and risks they are most focused on, most excited about, and most wary of.

  • 01:30pm - 02:00pm (CST) / 20/apr/2023 06:30 pm - 20/apr/2023 07:00 pm

    Stopping Trouble at the Source: Reaching New Levels of ISPM-15 Cooperation

    The discovery of dangerous wood-boring pests in apparently compliant wood packaging material continues to be an expensive and frustrating hurdle for US breakbulk and project cargo importers and their supply chain partners. However, the government agencies involved with ISPM 15 inspection and enforcement, namely US Customs and Border Patrol and the US Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, are signaling a new willingness to work proactively with industry members, improve information transparency, and develop screening and prevention training programs. In this roundtable discussion, industry stakeholders will discuss progress made and progress still to be made with this expensive and frustrating issue. 

  • 04:15pm - 05:00pm (CST) / 20/apr/2023 09:15 pm - 20/apr/2023 10:00 pm

    Breakbulk and Project Transport: Competition, Capacity, and Decarbonization

    This forward-looking roundtable discussion will focus on project and breakbulk market expectations and challenges as they appear to a range of ocean transportation providers. The project and breakbulk cargo niche is less transparent and more difficult to analyze than other shipping sectors. Indices are limited, while tracking trade flow requires a grasp of many trade routes and cargoes. Wind energy, oil and gas, mining, steel, and other breakbulk generate very different cargoes and commodities in a variety of trade lanes. Some of these cargoes require engineered transportation and specific ship types; others are far more flexible. This fragmentation greatly adds to the complexity of the niche. In this session, carrier executives will discuss market expectations, competition, the orderbook, and gearing up for decarbonization and green fuels.  

Friday, 21 April

  • 08:45am - 09:05am (CST) / 21/apr/2023 01:45 pm - 21/apr/2023 02:05 pm
  • 09:05am - 09:45am (CST) / 21/apr/2023 02:05 pm - 21/apr/2023 02:45 pm

    A Brave New World: Global Trade and the Escalating Focus on Vessel Emissions

    Testy geopolitical relationships, an intensifying drive toward energy security and diversity, and changing sourcing patterns won’t be the only factors complicating the nature of global project and breakbulk shipping over the next few years. Increasingly complex emissions regulations from the International Maritime Organization and the European Union, along with growing pressure from governments, investors, cargo owners, and others are in some cases putting shipowners and time-charter operators at odds and could further restrict available capacity in the already-tight multipurpose segment. Additionally, shipping industry members question whether newly enforced regulations such as the Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII) are capable of truly reducing emissions as they are configured. Exactly what percentage of the multipurpose and heavy-lift fleet is directly affected by the CII and related regulations isn't clear at first glance, either. How will new regulations and requirements affect multipurpose and heavy-lift vessel owners, charterers, and their project and breakbulk customers? Thomas Damsgaard, who recently opened BIMCO’s newest office in Houston, is a well-known and respected member of the shipping community with deep experience in the multipurpose sector. This session will address the immediate effects of burgeoning emissions regulations, including the CII, and their implications for owners, operators, ports and terminals, service providers, and breakbulk shipping customers.

  • 03:30pm - 03:35pm (CST) / 21/apr/2023 08:30 pm - 21/apr/2023 08:35 pm