Messages

1

Shipping News and information / Re: Online Shipping Courses

« on: August 05, 2020, 09:00:02 AM »

Hi

Besides Liverpool Uni which is a good bet, you could also try contacting the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers. Don't be put off by the name - they do courses on all aspects of the industry including port management: https://www.ics.org.uk/learning/port-and-terminal-management

There's also the Institute of Supply Chain Management: https://www.ioscm.com/courses/ports-shipping-courses/

Rgds

Neil

2

Shipping News and information / Re: REEFERS

« on: June 29, 2020, 03:36:42 PM »

Yes, the fish trades generate conventional reefer ship activity for Asian ports like Bangkok. The banana trades are also important - ports in Central America like Puerto Limon in Costa Rica are busy. Turbo in Colombia is another one I think. Also the Panama Canal sees transits, so worth watching here too. However, as others have said, conventional reefer ships are declining rapidly, as the container lines have hoovered up the majority of this business.

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Help and Advice / Re: Photography locations: Cuxhaven and the Elbe

« on: December 19, 2019, 11:14:01 AM »

Excellent, many thanks Ulf

4

Help and Advice / Re: Photography locations: Cuxhaven and the Elbe

« on: December 18, 2019, 11:53:47 AM »

Thanks Patrick and Pieter, very helpful. Albert Ballin Platz and Alte Liebe sound like good options. Thanks also Pieter for the boat trip suggestions. PietB - thanks re Otterndorf, will investigate.

5

Help and Advice / Photography locations: Cuxhaven and the Elbe

« on: December 17, 2019, 10:26:38 AM »

Does anyone have any experience of ship photography at Cuxhaven? Is it a good location (looks like the ships pass pretty close). If so, where exactly is best? The Kugelbake?
Also, can anyone suggest good locations further up the Elbe closer to Hamburg?
Thanks

6

Shipping News and information / Re: CLdN ex-Cobelfret

« on: June 02, 2019, 09:42:18 AM »

I think it's Compagnie Luxembourgeoise d'Navigation

7

Help and Advice / Re: Maximum Size of Container Vessel

« on: February 13, 2018, 09:04:09 AM »

The new Panama locks allow a maximum of 19 boxes wide. Maximum ship size is around 14,400 teu.

8

Help and Advice / Re: Maximum Size of Container Vessel

« on: February 12, 2018, 04:30:12 PM »

As others have said, maximum container ship dimensions are constrained by canals, ports and terminals. Ports and terminals in particular have, over the last few years, had to spend huge sums of money on enhancing and enlarging approach channels, turning circles, berths (length and depth), gantry cranes (outreach and height). The ever larger ships offer economies of scale to shipping lines, but push up costs for ports and terminals (and offer no more cargo than before, just greater peaks of cargo).

It seems though, that for the time being at least, the lines have realised that they can't push beyond the "400m long x 61m wide x 16.5m draft" footprint.

There is a commercial consideration though as well - if lines go for even larger ships, they have to find enough cargo to fill them. Today, the only way lines can fill 20,000 teu ships is by operating in alliances, and we are already down to just 3 alliances.

9

Shipping News and information / Re: Biggest Vessel to Call U.S. East Coast Comes to Virginia First

« on: August 31, 2017, 08:39:01 AM »

14,400 teu is about the largest vessel size that can fit through the expanded Panama Canal, so this is likely to remain the record for the US east coast ports for some time - unless any bigger ships are deployed on the Asia-US east coast route via Suez, but this seems unlikely, for now.

10

Shipping News and information / Re: CSCL / COSCON 22,000 teu ships

« on: April 20, 2017, 01:23:20 PM »

The Maersk Triple E vessels are a good example of optimising what's possible within the 400m x 59m footprint. The first batch were 18,340 teu but the second batch are 20,568 teu. The second batch has 12 tiers under deck rather than 11 (deeper hull) and the bridge moved further forwards (reducing deck load line of sight restrictions). There's also more lashing framework on deck to allow higher deck stacks. 20-21,000 teu seems to be the absolute maximum you can squeeze into the 400m x 59m footprint.

There are a lot of strong reasons why it's unlikely that we'll see ships significantly bigger than 21,000 teu. My company (Drewry) did some detailed modelling and found that after about 18,000 teu, while the ship costs decline a bit more with bigger ships, the port costs go up, so the overall system cost increases.

Also, a key question is how would shipping lines fill even bigger ships? They already have to work together in just three big alliances to fill the ships they have today. Plus even bigger ships would likely mean even lower service frequency (and it's already declined markedly over the last few years). Shippers would be even less happy than they are today!

11

Shipping News and information / Re: CSCL / COSCON 22,000 teu ships

« on: April 18, 2017, 10:16:21 AM »

I'd be very surprised if the 400 metre long barrier is broken. All of the very big container ships on order fall within the 400m long x 59m beam limits. Ports and terminals have invested and adapted on the basis of 400m max vessel lengths and going beyond this will cause significant issues for many places.

What is happening is that designers are finding ways to squeeze greater teu intakes into the 400m x 59m shape. For example a 12th layer of boxes on deck (empties only) adds about 1,000 teu.

The 6 vessels that Cosco China Shipping has on order from the Waigaoqiao yard have a stated capacity of just under 21,000 teu.

12

Shipping News and information / Re: P3 gets U.S. regulators approval !!

« on: March 23, 2014, 04:38:23 PM »

Regardless of what the regulators decide, the fact is that Maersk, MSC and CMA-CGM have to get approval for the P3 - there's no way of filling their very large ships without operational co-operation. The pressure is on for the other alliances to expand to match the P3, both in terms of numbers of lines being members, and in terms of geographical scope. Evergreen is joining the CKYH on the Asia-Europe route, the G6 is seeking permission to expand to cover the Transatlantic and Transpacific. What will China Shipping and UASC do I wonder?

13

Shipping News and information / Re: Hamburg Sud new ships at Tilbury:

« on: March 23, 2014, 04:32:13 PM »

Interesting to see these very large ships calling at Tilbury, albeit only for a few calls before moving down river. Tilbury's riverside berths have a minimum depth of 13.7 metres and cranes with a max outreach of 18 boxes.

Diver Shoal in the river channel off Gravesend though is the key restriction, with just 8-9 metres at low water. Of course you can add 5-6 metres tide to this but using London Gateway allows a longer access window and more flexibility in arrival and departure times.

Also the vessels can be loaded down to their marks if required (although with multi-port calling in Northern Europe the actual draft per port call depends where the vessel is in the port rotation).

It seems clear that Tilbury will concentrate mainly on short sea and feeder business going forwards.

14

Shipping News and information / Re: SVENDBORG MAERSK

« on: February 18, 2014, 04:17:44 PM »

More details and photo can be found here: http://www.vesselfinder.com/news/1840-Svendborg-Maersk-lost-50-containers

15

Shipping News and information / Re: London Gateway

« on: February 11, 2014, 02:33:54 PM »

Thanks Phil. Yes, the crane outreaches and alongside depth at Northfleet Hope mean that the 9,600 teu HS ships could only be accommodated if not on max draft (or only by sitting on the berth around high water which is impractical) and only if stowed a certain way. Not impossible but not preferable either when there is an alternative just down the river without these issues - you can see why the decision was made. Plus there is also the draft limitation of Diver Shoal off Gravesend isn't there.