The owner
Carries the project risk and the schedule, but has usually contracted out the logistics to parties he does not direct himself.
“My module is in Thailand and my foundation is in Antwerp. The rest is detail. Right?”
Book · in preparation
EPCLogistics.
Project logistics in EPC projects, seen from all four parties who have to make it work together: the owner, the EPC contractor, the forwarder and the carrier. The EPC Logistics book puts that practice on paper.
Published in English · publication date to follow
EnglishInternational legal frameworkAnonymised cases from practice
Nobody loses money on logistics in an EPC project. Except when nobody knows who signs for what.
A large EPC project brings together four parties with different interests, different contracts and different risks. The owner wants his plant on its foundation on time. The EPC contractor wants to stay inside his lump sum. The forwarder wants an instruction he can actually execute. The carrier wants a vessel filled at a rate that holds. When those four work past each other, the project pays for it.
This book describes that world from the inside, from all four seats. Not general supply chain theory, but the practice of modules, semi-submersibles, load ports, customs and Incoterms, with the choices that have to be made and what they cost when made wrongly. The cases are anonymised and the legal framework is international, not Dutch or Belgian.
Four seats at the table
One shipment, four stories
Each chapter looks at the same decision through the eyes of a different party. That is the structure of the book, and the reason it exists.
The EPC contractor
Often works lump sum and engineers the shipping arrangements. Every euro too much in there never comes back.
“It was in the bid. Whether it can be executed, we find out on the first sailing.”
The forwarder
Translates a project schedule into bookings, documents and customs. Is the first to know when a plan does not add up.
“I can arrange anything. Just not yesterday, and not at this rate.”
The carrier
Thinks in vessel space, stability and sailing schedules, not in construction sites. A part charter is a puzzle with someone else’s cargo.
“Your module fits. Your completion date does not.”
The subjects
What the book covers
The structure follows the life of a shipment: from the moment logistics is still an assumption in a bid, to the module standing on its foundation.
- The execution planWhy the logistics execution plan has to exist before the first purchase order, and what goes wrong when it is written after award.
- Contracts and IncotermsWho carries which costs, risks and obligations, where the handover differs in practice from the paperwork, and how insurance and claims connect to it.
- CharteringSemi-submersibles, heavy-lift carriers, breakbulk and part charters: how the choice is made and why it is rarely only about price.
- Customs and complianceExport, import, temporary admission and the documents that can keep a module on the quay.
- Routing and last mileFrom module yard via marshalling yard to site, including heavy transport over the final kilometres.
- When it goes wrongRerouting, delay, damage and the question of who pays. With anonymised cases from practice.
Why this book
What makes it different
Four perspectivesNot a one-sided account from the forwarder or the shipper, but the same decision seen from every seat.
From executionWritten from assignments where the choices actually had to be made, not from a model.
Internationally applicableThe legal framework is international, so the book is usable outside the Netherlands and Belgium.
Photo needed: book coverThe final cover. As soon as it exists it goes into the 3D book at the top of this page and onto the links page.
Photo needed: project logisticsOne or two photos without text in them: a module on board, a load port or heavy transport under way.
The author
Gert Geeve, CSCP
Interim logistics manager since April 2023, after more than 25 years in logistics, chartering, heavy-lift operations and warehousing. Led the logistics of a four-billion-euro EPC project with three EPC partners, 14 semi-submersible carriers and 15 heavy-lift carriers from the Middle East and Asia. That kind of experience sits underneath this book, anonymised and detached from the client.
APICS CSCPFinalist Logistics Manager of the Year
25+ years in logisticsPartner at UC Group
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