Excerpt: “…Typically, said Dennis Devlin, director of global projects and energy for forwarder BDP Project Logistics, it takes about a year for the impact of a recession to hit projects.

“One could point to a lack of funding for projects from roughly the fall of 2008 to the spring of 2009,” Devlin said. “There was definitely a period when new projects were not being signed.”

Because of that, he expects to see a slowdown toward the end of this year or in early 2010.

But he is not predicting a catastrophe. “Projects will continue. They will be financed. Not back to the extremely high levels of the past years, but the bottom will not fall out,” Devlin said. Recovering oil prices, stimulus funds and a growing interest in nuclear power also may have some positive impact.

Globally, Chinese projects are “rolling along” and appear unaffected by the downturn, while Chinese investments in Africa and Latin America is growing. In addition, BDP is involved in an array of projects in Algeria, Libya, eastern Europe, the Middle East and South America, Devlin said.”

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