Geopolitics · Country Risk · Regulatory Frameworks Feasibility · Route Engineering · Heavy Lift · Chartering Weather Windows · Contract Exposure · Execution Control Geopolitics · Country Risk · Regulatory Frameworks Feasibility · Route Engineering · Heavy Lift · Chartering Weather Windows · Contract Exposure · Execution Control
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SZ &
Brief a move ES

Applied intelligence for the movement of critical cargo.

We analyse the geopolitics, regulatory frameworks, institutions and infrastructure of every jurisdiction a move must cross — and only then engineer the move. The logistics is the output; the analysis is the product.

Brief a move How we model a move
35+ Years  ·  13 Shipowners represented  ·  26 Operations on record Drag to spin the globe —

The premise

Most of a move's risk is priced before anything is lifted.

The country, the rules, the ports, the season and the contract are read first. The corridor, the vessel and the schedule are engineered from that reading.

Six readings before cargo moves

  1. Political stability, security, sanctions and the institutions that move — or stall — a border crossing.

  2. Import regimes, temporary admission, exemptions and permits, including Argentina’s RIGI.

  3. Wind, swell, river stages and rainfall, read against operational limits.

  4. Draft, quay strength, crane capacity, bridge loads and road geometry.

  5. Owners, yards and freight levels, benchmarked against the live market.

  6. Where liability actually sits in each charter party, Incoterm and order.

A power transformer on a trailer under a ship's crane at dusk.

Key figures

As recorded in the operations our team has directed. Further detail on any of them on request.

  1. Years across shipping, chartering and project logistics

  2. tonnes

    Steel pipe moved for oil & gas and energy programmes

  3. CBM

    A single mining project — Jindal pipe for Codelco, Mundra to Chile

  4. Shipowners and operators represented — Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, the United States and China

0 KM/H
SZ &

Seven faculties.
One accountable
advisor.

Feasibility, engineering, chartering, contract and execution are not separate purchases. They are one decision, evaluated as a whole, by the party that carries the consequence of getting it wrong.

01 · Feasibility &
Route Engineering

Corridor, clearance envelope and permit exposure modelled before a mode is committed.

02 · Cargo Engineering
& Heavy Lift

Lift plans, stowage, seafastening and load-out for indivisible and oversized pieces.

03 · Marine
Chartering

Voyage, time, bareboat and COA — negotiated on the owner’s terms and read against yours.

04 · Air &
Critical Cargo

Charter and part-charter uplift when the schedule, not the freight, is the constraint.

05 · Contract
& Liability

Where the risk actually sits once the bill of lading, the charter party and the Incoterm are read together.

06 · Port, Customs
& Regulatory

Berth, draft, crane capacity and clearance regime, checked against the piece before it sails.

07 · Execution
& Control

One accountable party from booking to discharge, reporting against the plan that was signed.

OUR SERVICES

Rigour
at every
leg.

The recommendation answers to the project. Every supplier is compared on the same documented technical and commercial criteria.

Route
modelling

Corridor, bridge and axle-load constraints resolved before a mode is committed.

Independent
advice

Offers compared on one basis, and the reasoning behind each recommendation kept on the record.

Contract
command

Charter party, bill of lading and Incoterm read as one instrument, because that is how liability reads them.

One accountable
party

The same advisor from feasibility to discharge. No handover, no dilution of responsibility.

Logistics is a
strategic business
function.

One point of
judgement

One advisor answers for feasibility, contract and execution. There is no seam for a problem to fall through.

The decision, on
the record

Every recommendation carries the assumptions it rests on, so it can be audited when conditions change.

Regulatory exposure,
priced

Permits, bonds and clearance regimes assessed as cost and calendar, not as paperwork discovered at the berth.

Ranges, not
promises

Cost and window quoted as bands with the drivers named. A single number hides the risk instead of pricing it.

Failure modes,
rehearsed

The contingency is designed with the plan, not improvised at the quay when the weather window closes.

Three sectors,
on the
record.

Coated steel line pipe stacked on a quay beside a multipurpose vessel.
Oil & Gas · Offshore
Gasoducto Néstor Kirchner · Total Austral · Magallanes Incremental

Steel pipe for pipeline, upstream and offshore programmes in Argentina. 2,000,000+ t across the programmes.

A mill shell segment on a modular trailer on a mountain desert road.
Mining
Codelco · Jindal · Mundra → Chile

Steel pipe produced by Jindal, loaded in Mundra and delivered to Chile. 248,500 CBM in a single project.

A Francis turbine runner hanging from a spreader beam in a powerhouse.
Power & Hydro
IMPSA · Bakun · Tocoma · Aña Cuá

Hydropower in Malaysia, the Philippines, Venezuela and Paraguay. Bakun and Tocoma executed in full.

Capabilities

Seven disciplines, from first question to final claim.

Thirty-four services, practised as seven disciplines — each drawing on the same layer of country, market and regulatory analysis. Engaged one at a time, or as one integrated mandate.

01/ 07

  1. A total station aimed at a mountain bridge before an oversized load crosses it.
    01

    Feasibility & Route Engineering

    Whether a move is executable, along which corridor and at what approximate cost — settled before commitments are made.

    Open the discipline
  2. Two ship cranes lifting a pressure vessel in tandem.
    02

    Cargo Engineering & Heavy Lift

    The engineering of the piece itself: how it is lifted, stowed and secured — and which vessel can actually take it.

    Open the discipline
  3. A heavy-lift vessel berthed with hatches open, project cargo waiting on the quay.
    03

    Marine Chartering

    Vessel procurement as a controlled, auditable process — from market sounding to fixture, and through post-fixture.

    Open the discipline
  4. A crated generator loaded into the nose of a freighter aircraft at night.
    04

    Air & Critical Cargo

    For cargo decided against the clock: independent assessment and senior execution when the schedule cannot absorb the sea.

    Open the discipline
  5. A charter party and stowage plan on a chart table.
    05

    Contract & Liability

    Where risk actually sits: the charter party, the Incoterm, the claim — and the paper trail that decides who pays.

    Open the discipline
  6. A project crate in a terminal inspection bay at dusk.
    06

    Port, Customs & Regulatory

    Ports and regimes evaluated on total landed cost — then navigated with authorities, with compliance intact.

    Open the discipline
  7. A transformer on self-propelled modular transporters at night.
    07

    Execution & Control

    The move, run on the plan: readiness, KPIs, deviations — and senior intervention when reality pushes back.

    Open the discipline

Beyond the ship

Shipping is one link. The project is everything around it.

In an EPC programme the sea leg is rarely what fails. A bridge that cannot take the axle load, a permit a municipality has not issued, a river too shallow in the dry season — the work sits on land and in institutions, and it is planned before the first vessel is fixed.

  1. A heavy trailer halted before a river bridge fitted with load-test sensors.
    01

    Structures & route engineering

    Every bridge, culvert and overpass on the route is checked against the axle loads, with structural engineers where the margin is thin. Overhead lines, gradients and turning radii are measured, not assumed.

    WithStructural & transport engineers

  2. A temporary steel bridge and gravel bypass built beside an old road bridge.
    02

    Enabling works

    When the route cannot carry the load, the route changes: bridges reinforced or bypassed, roads widened, ramps and laydown yards built — specified, priced and commissioned before the cargo is on the water.

    WithCivil engineers & contractors

  3. A dredger deepening a river channel beside a temporary landing under construction.
    03

    Rivers, ports & access

    Bathymetry confirms the draught. Where a channel or a berth falls short, dredging and temporary landings enter the plan, each with its own permits and its own window.

    WithHydrographers & marine contractors

  4. A small town's main street at night, overhead lines lifted for a convoy.
    04

    Authorities & communities

    Provinces, municipalities, road agencies, police escorts and the towns along the route each hold a permit, a condition or a concern. They are engaged early, on the record and within compliance.

    WithLocal counsel & institutional liaison

  5. An environmental monitoring station on a wetland beside a haul road.
    05

    Environment & season

    Environmental specialists assess the footprint of routes, works and crossings. River levels, rains and seasonal road limits set the windows the schedule has to live in.

    WithEnvironmental & permitting specialists

  6. A large plant under construction at dusk, finished sections beside unfinished ones.
    06

    The long programme

    Programmes run for years — on the record, 2,000,000 t of cement over four. From the bid to close-out, the supply chain changes under the schedule; the accountable lead does not.

    WithOne executive lead, throughout

Specialists are engaged by the practice as each project requires, under one plan and one point of accountability. Feasibility & Route Engineering

Method

Every move is modelled before it is moved.

Eight links, read in the order the cargo meets them. A weak link reprices the others, so the chain is read whole before anything is committed.

TechnicalOperationalCommercialContractualRisk

  1. 01

    Supplier

    Readiness, packing and documents at the gate.

  2. 02

    Origin transport

    Road, rail or barge to the load port.

  3. 03

    Export port

    Draft, quay load, cranes and storage.

  4. 04

    Ocean

    Vessel, stowage, route and season.

  5. 05

    Destination port

    Discharge, berth and laydown.

  6. 06

    Customs

    Regime, permits and the paper trail.

  7. 07

    Inland

    Bridges, escorts, axle loads, windows.

  8. 08

    Final site

    Access, offload and handover.

01/ 08

How we model a move →

First reading

You send

  1. Cargo dimensionsL × W × H, m
  2. Unit weightt
  3. Originplant or port
  4. Destinationsite or port
  5. Execution windowmonth range

You receive

  1. Viable modes
  2. Window band
  3. Permits foreseen
  4. Indicative cost band

Issued as ranges, with the assumptions attached. An estimate, not a quotation.

Request a first reading

The Hidden System

See beyond.

Port, route, cost, schedule, contract and country move together. The model reads them as one system.

13 layers · 40 dependencies · 4 strata

Applied AIAn in-house team builds the tools that trace these dependencies project by project — support for the reading, not a substitute for it.

01 · Scatter

Every project arrives as a single object.

02 · Structure

Thirteen variables, linked by forty dependencies.

03 · Propagation

Move one, and you have moved five.

PORT DELAYROUTE → COST → TIMELINE → EPC EXPOSURE

Shell I · MATTER

PORT

Draft, quay load, crane envelope, congestion. A port is a constraint, not an address.

PORT DELAY PORT → ROUTE → COST → TIMELINE → EPC

00 · CORE

  • CARGO

I · MATTER

  • VESSEL
  • PORT
  • ROUTE

II · MANDATE

  • EPC
  • SUPPLIERS
  • REGULATION
  • COUNTRY

III · EXPOSURE

  • MARKET
  • POLITICAL RISK
  • COST
  • TIMELINE

IV · EXECUTION

  • EXECUTION

Track record

Three decades, on the record.

Selected operations directed by our team across energy, mining, hydropower, industry and infrastructure — the core of it South American, supplied from origins on four continents. Figures as recorded; further project detail on request.

Refinery modules on the deck of a heavy-lift ship on a river at dusk.

Gaolan (CN) → Campana (AR)

Axion Energy refinery

A complete refinery, moved from the fabrication yards to site.

43,500CBM

Rows of steel pipe on a desert port quay.

Mundra (IN) → Chile

Codelco — steel pipe

Pipe produced by Jindal and delivered for a single mining project.

248,500CBM

A hydropower dam in rainforest mist.

Malaysia · Venezuela

IMPSA — Bakun & Tocoma

Two hydropower projects, each executed in full, with semi-submersible operations.

2projects in full

See all 26 operations

Sectors

Five sectors. Cargo that crossed the desk.

One example of complex cargo per sector: a subsea manifold, a SAG mill shell, a Francis runner, a pulp digester and a locomotive rigged for lift.

Subsea production manifold

01 / 05

Oil & Gas

2,000,000+t

Pipelines, offshore programmes and gas infrastructure — upstream to LNG, wellhead to network, from Argentine onshore programmes to Mediterranean offshore.

Axion refinery · NK Gas Pipeline, Stage 1 · Total Austral · Magallanes Incremental

Oil & Gas →

02 / 05

Mining

248,500CBM

Mine construction and process-plant logistics — Andean altitude, hard corridors, remote sites.

Codelco · Jindal — Mundra → Chile

Mining →

03 / 05

Power & Hydro

5IMPSA projects

Turbines, generators and transformers for hydro and generation projects on three continents.

Bakun · Tocoma · Aña Cuá · Kalayaan / CBK · Palúa

Power & Hydro →

04 / 05

Industry & Pulp

46,000CBM

Mills, plants, expansions and relocations — pulp, cement, petrochemical, fertiliser, brewing.

UPM · Arauco · Yguazú · Quilmes · Isenbeck

Industry & Pulp →

05 / 05

Infrastructure

Rail, defence & marine

Railway modernisation, defence movements, dredgers, tugs and ferries — delivered onto the network, or under their own power.

Sarmiento & Belgrano Cargas · US Navy · DASA

Infrastructure →

Intelligence

An independent reading, before the commitment.

Four reviews that produce a reading, not a transaction — for management, boards, lenders and investors.

One large cargo on a quay between a heavy-lift ship and a deck barge.
Go · no-go · conditionalIndependent second opinionA vessel, an offer, a plan or a contract, reviewed before management commits to it.
A port and industrial site under construction, from the air.
Investors & lendersLogistics due diligenceWhether a project's logistics budget and assumptions will hold.
Trucks with oversized cargo waiting at a border crossing at dawn.
Challenging jurisdictionsCountry & sociopolitical riskStability, sanctions and institutions, read against the logistics plan.
A heavy-haul road winding towards a remote plant site.
Before procurementLogistics feasibilityWhether the project can be delivered, and at what approximate cost.

Contact

Put the move on the desk.

Send the cargo, its origin and destination, and the window you are working to. The first reply sets out whether the move is feasible, the likely corridor, the main exposures and an indicative cost band — before anything is committed.

Brief a move Meet the firm

sz@szandcoadvisory.com London · worldwide