I’ve just spent the last two days at the inaugural Inland Marine Expo (IMX) in St. Louis. According to show organizers, IMX was made up of 128 companies exhibiting at 144 booths. Here are some nuggets of information I came across while roaming the aisles, attending conference sessions, and going out Tuesday night.
• Sneed Shipbuilding constructs between 12 and 15 vessels per year.
• There are about 10,400 dry, covered barges on the inland system, down from 12,700.
• “Transportation brings value.” — Ken Eriksen, Informa Economics, Inc.
• “I think using LNG in small boats, with the smaller engines, is a long way off.” — Donald Haar, technical marketing manager, DJMP Engine Solutions, Marine Engine Carbon Footprint Reduction.
• There are 48 LNG-fueled vessels in operation across the globe, with another 50 under construction.
• “The problem with LNG tanks is that they take up a lot of space.” — Ed Shearer, The Shearer Group.
• The Shearer Group is the only naval architectural firm that is a dues-paying member of the American Waterways Operators, according to Shearer.
• “It’s getting harder to obtain data from the Corps [of Engineers].” — Eriksen
• The equivalent of one (heated) gallon of LNG has 3.8- to 4-times the volume of a gallon of diesel.
• Ballpark Village around Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals, is FANtastic.
• The bar at the top of the Hilton Hotel has an outside area where you can look down into Busch Stadium. When I was in my 20s, I would have slept there.
