Misplaced Pages

#762237

58-573: MS Berge Stahl was a bulk carrier . Until the delivery of MS Vale Brasil in 2011 she was the longest and largest iron ore carrier in the world. She was registered in Comoros . Before that, she was registered in Douglas , Isle of Man , Stavanger , Norway as well as in Monrovia , Liberia . An iron ore carrier, Berge Stahl had a capacity of 364,767 tonnes deadweight (DWT) . She

116-407: A 6 feet (2 m) hole below the hatch cover and filling it with bagged cargo or weights. A bulk carrier's design is largely defined by the cargo it will carry. The cargo's density, also known as its stowage factor , is the key factor. Densities for common bulk cargoes vary from 0.6 tons per cubic meter for light grains to 3 tons per cubic meter for iron ore. The overall cargo weight

174-777: A beam of up to 32.31 m, a length overall of up to 294.13 m, and a draft of up to 12.04 m. Capesize ships are too large to traverse the Panama canal and must round Cape Horn to travel between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Earlier, Capesize ships could not traverse the Suez and needed to go around the Cape of Good Hope . Recent deepening of the Suez canal to 66 ft (20 m) permits most Capesize ships to pass through it. Capesize bulk carriers are specialized: 93% of their cargo

232-484: A bulk carrier typically consists of 20 to 30 people, though smaller ships can be handled by 8. The crew includes the captain or master, the deck department , the engine department , and the steward's department . The practice of taking passengers aboard cargo ships, once almost universal, is very rare today and almost non-existent on bulk carriers. During the 1990s, bulk carriers were involved in an alarming number of shipwrecks . This led ship-owners to commission

290-415: A fixed-pitch propeller . Electricity is produced by auxiliary generators and/or an alternator coupled to the propeller shaft. On the smaller bulk carriers, one or two four-stroke diesels are used to turn either a fixed or controllable-pitch propeller via a reduction gearbox , which may also incorporate an output for an alternator. The average design ship speed for bulk carriers of Handysize and above

348-787: A fleet of 14 bulk carriers. The H. Vogemann Group in Hamburg, Germany operates a fleet of 19 bulk carriers. Portline in Portugal, owns 10 bulk carriers. Dampskibsselskabet Torm in Denmark and Elcano in Spain also own notable bulk carrier fleets. Other companies specialize in mini-bulk carrier operations: England's Stephenson Clarke Shipping Limited owns a fleet of eight mini-bulk carriers and five small Handysize bulk carriers, and Cornships Management and Agency Inc. in Turkey owns

406-738: A fleet of seven mini-bulk carriers. Asian companies dominate the construction of bulk carriers. Of the world's 6,225 bulk carriers, almost 62% were built in Japan by shipyards such as Oshima Shipbuilding and Sanoyas Hishino Meisho . South Korea, with notable shipyards Daewoo and Hyundai Heavy Industries , ranked second among builders, with 643 ships. The People's Republic of China, with large shipyards such as Dalian, Chengxi, and Shanghai Waigaoqiao, ranked third, with 509 ships. Taiwan , with shipyards such as China Shipbuilding Corporation , ranked fourth, accounting for 129 ships. Shipyards in these top four countries built over 82% of

464-584: A million deadweight tons worth of bulk carriers were scrapped in 2004, accounting for 4.7% of the year's scrapping. That year, bulk carriers fetched particularly high scrap prices, between $ 340 and $ 350 per LDT. 1 Chief mate 1 Second mate 1 Third mate 1 Boatswain 1 Deck cadet 2–6 Able seamen 0–2 Ordinary seamen 1 Chief engineer 1 Second engineer 1 Third engineer 1–2 Fourth engineers 0–1 ETO 0–2 Motormen 1–3 Oilers 0–3 Greasers 1–3 Wipers 1 Chief steward 1 Chief cook 1 Steward's assistant The crew on

522-540: A minimum scantling of 6 mm for the tops of the hatch covers. The International Association of Classification Societies then increased this strength standard by creating its Unified Requirement S21 in 1998. This standard requires that the pressure due to sea water be calculated as a function of freeboard and speed, especially for hatch covers located on the forward portion of the ship. Bulk carriers are designed to be easy to build and to store cargo efficiently. To facilitate construction , bulk carriers are built with

580-512: A quarter are registered in Panama . South Korea is the largest single builder of bulk carriers, and 82 percent of these ships were built in Asia. On bulk carriers, crews are involved in operation, management, and maintenance of the vessel, taking care of safety, navigation, maintenance, and cargo care, in accordance with international maritime legislation. Crews can range in size from three people on

638-490: A ship, paying a daily rate instead of a set price per ton. In 2005, the average daily rate for a Handymax ship varied between $ 18,000 – $ 30,000. A Panamax ship could be chartered for $ 20,000 – $ 50,000 per day, and a Capesize for $ 40,000 – $ 70,000 per day. Generally, ships are removed from the fleet by going through a process known as ship breaking or scrapping. Ship-owners and buyers negotiate scrap prices based on factors such as

SECTION 10

#1732783119763

696-424: A single hull curvature. Also, while a bulbous bow allows a ship to move more efficiently through the water, designers lean towards simple vertical bows on larger ships. Full hulls, with large block coefficients , are almost universal, and as a result, bulk carriers are inherently slow. This is offset by their efficiency. Comparing a ship's carrying capacity in terms of deadweight tonnage to its weight when empty

754-652: A study seeking to explain the effect of various factors on the crew's effectiveness and competence. The study showed that crew performance aboard bulk carriers was the lowest of all groups studied. Among bulk carrier crews, the best performance was found aboard younger and larger ships. Crews on better-maintained ships performed better, as did crews on ships where fewer languages were spoken. Fewer deck officers are employed on bulk carriers than on similarly sized ships of other types. A mini-bulk carrier carries two to three deck officers, while larger Handysize and Capesize bulk carriers carry four. Liquid natural gas tankers of

812-461: A total combined capacity of almost 346 million DWT. Combined carriers are a very small portion of the fleet, representing less than 3% of this capacity. The lake freighters of the Great Lakes , with 98 ships of 3.2 million total DWT, despite forming a small fraction of the total fleet by tonnage and only operating 10 months a year, carried a tenth of the world's bulk cargo because of

870-679: Is 13.5–15 knots (25.0–27.8 km/h; 15.5–17.3 mph). The propeller speed is relatively low, at about 90 revolutions per minute, although it depends on the size of the propeller. As a result of the 1973 oil crisis , the 1979 energy crisis , and the resulting rise in oil prices, experimental designs using coal to fuel ships were tested in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Australian National Lines (ANL) constructed two 74,700-ton coal-burner ships called River Boyne and River Embely . along with two constructed by TNT called TNT Capricornia and TNT Capentaria and renamed Fitzroy River and Endeavor River . These ships were financially effective for

928-733: Is iron ore and coal. Some ships on the Great Lakes Waterway exceed Panamax dimensions but they are limited to use on the Great Lakes as they cannot pass through the smaller St. Lawrence Seaway to the ocean. Very large ore carriers and very large bulk carriers are a subset of the capesize category reserved for vessels over 200,000  DWT . Carriers of this size are almost always designed to carry iron ore. In October 2022, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL)'s bulk carrier Shofu Maru arrived in Newcastle on its maiden voyage, becoming

986-493: Is one way to measure its efficiency. A small Handymax ship can carry five times its weight. In larger designs, this efficiency is even more pronounced: Capesize vessels can carry more than eight times their weight. Weight distribution In a vehicle which relies on gravity in some way, weight distribution directly affects a variety of vehicle characteristics, including handling , acceleration , traction , and component life. For this reason weight distribution varies with

1044-421: Is the limiting factor in the design of an ore carrier, since the cargo is so dense. Coal carriers, on the other hand, are limited by overall volume, since most bulk carriers can be completely filled with coal before reaching their maximum draft. For a given tonnage, the second factor which governs the ship's dimensions is the size of the ports and waterways it will travel to. For example, a vessel that will pass

1102-403: Is the opening at the top of a cargo hold . The mechanical devices which allow hatches to be opened and closed are called hatch cover. In general, hatch covers are between 45% and 60% of the ship's breadth, or beam, and 57% to 67% of the length of the holds. To efficiently load and unload cargo, hatches must be large, but large hatches present structural problems. Hull stress is concentrated around

1160-427: Is used for combination oil and ore carriers. The terms "VLOC", "VLBC", "ULOC", and "ULBC" for very large and ultra-large ore and bulk carriers were adapted from the supertanker designations very large crude carrier and ultra-large crude carrier. Before specialized bulk carriers were developed, shippers had two methods to move bulk goods by ship. In the first method, longshoremen loaded the cargo into sacks, stacked

1218-442: Is used to distinguish bulk carriers from bulk liquid carriers such as oil , chemical , or liquefied petroleum gas carriers . Very small bulk carriers are almost indistinguishable from general cargo ships, and they are often classified based more on the ship's use than its design. A number of abbreviations are used to describe bulk carriers. " OBO " describes a bulk carrier that carries a combination of ore, bulk, and oil, and "O/O"

SECTION 20

#1732783119763

1276-696: The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea defines a bulk carrier as "a ship constructed with a single deck, top side tanks and hopper side tanks in cargo spaces and intended to primarily carry dry cargo in bulk; an ore carrier; or a combination carrier." Most classification societies use a broader definition, by which a bulk carrier is any ship that carries dry unpackaged goods. Multipurpose cargo ships can carry bulk cargo, but can also carry other cargoes and are not specifically designed for bulk carriage. The term "dry bulk carrier"

1334-423: The 12-hour turnarounds common for container ships, 15-hour turnarounds for car carriers, and 26-hour turnarounds for large tankers, bulk carrier crews have more opportunities to spend time ashore. Loading and unloading a bulk carrier is time-consuming and dangerous. The process is planned by the ship's chief mate under the direct and continued supervision of ship's captain . International regulations require that

1392-592: The Great Lakes fleets, built in the 1970s, were among the longest ships afloat, and, in 1979, a record 214 million tons of bulk cargo were moved on the Great Lakes. Bulk carriers are segregated into six major size categories: small, handysize , handymax , panamax , capesize , and very large. Very large bulk and ore carriers fall into the capesize category but are often considered separately. Categories occur in regional trade , such as Kamsarmax, Seawaymax , Setouchmax, Dunkirkmax, and Newcastlemax also appear in regional trade. Mini-bulk carriers are prevalent in

1450-502: The Panama Canal will be limited in its beam and draft . For most designs, the ratio of length-to-width ranges between 5 and 7, with an average of 6.2. The ratio of length-to-height will be between 11 and 12. The engine room on a bulk carrier is usually near the stern , under the superstructure . Larger bulk carriers, from Handymax up, usually have a single two-stroke low-speed crosshead diesel engine directly coupled to

1508-453: The aircraft's center of gravity close to its center of pressure to avoid losing pitch control. In military transport aircraft, it is common to have a loadmaster as a part of the crew; their responsibilities include calculating accurate load information for center of gravity calculations, and ensuring cargo is properly secured to prevent its shifting. In large aircraft and ships, multiple fuel tanks and pumps are often used, so that as fuel

1566-594: The bulk carriers afloat. Several factors affect the cost to move a bulk cargo by ship. The bulk freight market is very volatile, with the type of cargo, size of the vessel, and the route traveled all affecting the final price. Moving a capesize load of coal from South America to Europe cost anywhere from $ 15 to $ 25 per ton in 2005. Hauling a panamax-sized load of aggregate materials from the Gulf of Mexico to Japan that year could cost as little as $ 40 per ton to as much as $ 70 per ton. Some shippers choose instead to charter

1624-505: The bulk carriers' large hatchways—have been linked to a spate of bulk carrier sinkings in the 1990s. These large hatchways, important for efficient cargo handling, can allow the entry of large volumes of water in storms and accelerate sinking once a vessel has listed or heeled . New international regulations have since been introduced to improve ship design and inspection and to streamline the process for crews to abandon ship. The term bulk carrier has been defined in varying ways. As of 1999,

1682-428: The captain and terminal master agree on a detailed plan before operations begin. Deck officers and stevedores oversee the operations. Occasionally loading errors are made that cause a ship to capsize or break in half at the pier. The loading method used depends on both the cargo and the equipment available on the ship and on the dock. In the least advanced ports, cargo can be loaded with shovels or bags poured from

1740-415: The cargo is discharged, the crew begins to clean the holds. This is particularly important if the next cargo is of a different type. The immense size of cargo holds and the tendency of cargoes to be physically irritating add to the difficulty of cleaning the holds. When the holds are clean, the process of loading begins. It is crucial to keep the cargo level during loading in order to maintain stability. As

1798-494: The cargo is fully loaded. Because bulk cargo is so difficult to discharge, bulk carriers spend more time in port than other ships. A study of mini-bulk carriers found that it takes, on average, twice as much time to unload a ship as it does to load it. A mini-bulk carrier spends 55 hours at a time in port, compared to 35 hours for a lumber carrier of similar size. This time in port increases to 74 hours for Handymax and 120 hours for Panamax vessels. Compared with

MS Berge Stahl - Misplaced Pages Continue

1856-444: The category of small vessels with a capacity of under 10,000  DWT . Mini-bulk carriers carry from 500 to 2,500 tons, have a single hold, and are designed for river transport. They are often built to be able to pass under bridges and have small crews of three to eight people. Handysize and Handymax ships are general purpose in nature. These two segments represent 71% of all bulk carriers over 10,000  DWT and also have

1914-459: The competitive British coal market. The first self-unloader was the lake freighter Hennepin in 1902 on the Great Lakes . This greatly decreased the unloading time of bulk carriers by using conveyor belt to move the cargo. The first bulk carriers with diesel propulsion began to appear in 1911. Before World War II , the international shipping demand for bulk products was low—about 25 million tons for metal ores —and most of this trade

1972-611: The crane can take a load, deposit it at the terminal and return to take the next. For modern gantry cranes, the total time of the grab-deposit-return cycle is about 50 seconds. Conveyor belts offer a very efficient method of loading, with standard loading rates varying between 100 and 700 tons per hour, although the most advanced ports can offer rates of 16,000 tons per hour. Start-up and shutdown procedures with conveyor belts, though, are complicated and require time to carry out. Self-discharging ships use conveyor belts with load rates of around 1,000 tons per hour. Once

2030-431: The duration of their lives, and their steam engines were able to generate a shaft-power of 19,000 horsepower (14,000 kW). This strategy gave an interesting advantage to carriers of bauxite and similar fuel cargoes, but suffered from poor engine yield compared to higher maintenance cost and efficient modern diesels, maintenance problems due to the supply of ungraded coal, and high initial costs. A hatch or hatchway

2088-548: The edges of the hatches, and these areas must be reinforced. Often, hatch areas are reinforced by locally increasing the scantlings or by adding structural members called stiffeners. Both of these options have the undesired effect of adding weight to the ship. As recently as the 1950s, hatches had wooden covers that would be broken apart and rebuilt by hand, rather than opened and closed. Newer vessels have hydraulic-operated metal hatch covers that can often be operated by one person. Hatch covers can slide forwards, backwards, or to

2146-530: The first bulk carrier to be partially powered by hard sail wind power propulsion technology. A five percent fuel savings was anticipated. The world's bulk transport has reached immense proportions: in 2005, 1.7 billion metric tons of coal, iron ore, grain, bauxite, and phosphate was transported by ship. Today, the world's bulk carrier fleet includes 6,225 ships of over 10,000 DWT, and represent 40% of all ships in terms of tonnage and 39.4% in terms of vessels. Including smaller ships, bulk carriers have

2204-608: The fully loaded Berge Stahl in October 2011, and several other Chinese ports have since opened to receive Vale's even larger Valemax ships. Berge Stahl can operate from other ports if not fully loaded. In September 2006, the ship carried ore to the port of Majishan , China . On the return voyage to Rotterdam, the ship picked up a partial load of ore in Dampier , Western Australia , and Saldanha Bay in South Africa (where

2262-411: The hatch cover. This system is being replaced with faster, less labor-intensive methods. Double-articulation cranes , which can load at a rate of 1,000 tons per hour, represent a widely used method, and the use of shore-based gantry cranes , reaching 2,000 tons per hour, is growing. A crane's discharge rate is limited by the bucket's capacity (from 6 to 40 tons) and by the speed at which

2320-454: The highest rate of growth. This is partly due to new regulations coming into effect which put greater constraints on the building of larger vessels. Handymax ships are typically 150–200 m in length and 52,000 – 58,000  DWT with five cargo holds and four cranes. These ships are also general purpose in nature. The size of a Panamax vessel is limited by the Panama canal's lock chambers , which can accommodate ships with

2378-402: The hold is filled, machines such as excavators and bulldozers are often used to keep the cargo in check. Leveling is particularly important when the hold is only partly full, since cargo is more likely to shift. Extra precautions are taken, such as adding longitudinal divisions and securing wood atop the cargo. If a hold is full, a technique called tomming is used, which involves digging out

MS Berge Stahl - Misplaced Pages Continue

2436-647: The maximum draft permitted is 21 m). In April 2014, the Berge Stahl received her last dry-docking , in Portugal . The owner, Berge Bulk, announced that the thirty-year-old vessel performed her last voyage to Rotterdam in the autumn of 2016. She was then headed for dry dock, where she was refitted before commencing a new contract transporting iron ore from the Port of Tubarão in Brazil to Sohar , Oman . In July 2021

2494-500: The problem of efficient loading and unloading has driven the evolution of the bulk carrier. Specialized bulk carriers began to appear as steam-powered ships became more popular. The first steam ship recognized as a bulk carrier was the British collier John Bowes , built in 1852. She featured a metal hull , a steam engine , and a ballasting system which used seawater instead of sandbags. These features helped her succeed in

2552-399: The sacks onto pallets , and put the pallets into the cargo hold with a crane . The second method required the shipper to charter an entire ship and spend time and money to build plywood bins into the holds. Then, to guide the cargo through the small hatches, wooden feeders and shifting boards had to be constructed. These methods were slow and labor-intensive . As with the container ship ,

2610-407: The same size have an additional deck officer and unlicensed mariner . A bulk carrier's voyages are determined by market forces; routes and cargoes often vary. A ship may engage in the grain trade during the harvest season and later move on to carry other cargoes or work on a different route. Aboard a coastal carrier in the tramp trade , the crew will often not know the next port of call until

2668-560: The ship was beached at Gadani ship-breaking yard and scrapped. Bulk carrier A bulk carrier or bulker is a merchant ship specially designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo —such as grain , coal, ore , steel coils, and cement—in its cargo holds . Since the first specialized bulk carrier was built in 1852, economic forces have led to increased size and sophistication of these ships. Today's bulk carriers are specially designed to maximize capacity, safety, efficiency, and durability. Today, bulk carriers make up 21 percent of

2726-468: The ship's empty weight (called light ton displacement or LDT) and prices in the scrap metal market. In 1998, almost 700 ships were scrapped in places like Alang, India and Chittagong, Bangladesh . This is often done by 'beaching' the ship on open sand, then cutting it apart by hand with gas torches, a dangerous operation that results in injuries and fatalities, as well as exposure to toxic materials such as asbestos, lead, and various chemicals. Half

2784-473: The short trip distance and fast turnarounds. As of 2005, the average bulk carrier was just over 13 years old. About 41% of all bulk carriers were less than ten years old, 33% were over twenty years old, and the remaining 26% were between ten and twenty years of age. All of the 98 bulk carriers registered in the Great Lakes trade are over 20 years old and the oldest still sailing in 2009, the St. Mary's Challenger ,

2842-506: The side, lift up or fold up. It is essential that the hatch covers be watertight: unsealed hatches lead to accidental cargo hold flooding, which has caused many bulk carriers to sink. Regulations regarding hatch covers have evolved since the investigation following the loss of the MV ; Derbyshire . The Load Line Conference of 1966 imposed a requirement that hatch covers be able to withstand load of 1.74 tons/m due to sea water, and

2900-528: The smallest ships to over 30 on the largest. Cargo loading operations vary in complexity, and loading and discharging of cargo can take several days. Bulk carriers can be gearless (dependent upon terminal equipment) or geared (having cranes integral to the vessel). Bulk cargo can be very dense, corrosive, or abrasive. This can present safety problems that can threaten a ship: problems such as cargo shifting , spontaneous combustion , and cargo saturation. The use of old ships that have corrosion problems—as well as

2958-568: The top three owners of bulk carriers, with 1,326, 1,041, and 979 vessels respectively. These three nations account for over 53% of the world's fleet. Several companies have large private bulk carrier fleets. The multinational company Gearbulk Holding Ltd. has over 70 bulk carriers. The Fednav Group in Canada operates a fleet of over 80 bulk carriers, including two designed to work in Arctic ice. Croatia 's Atlantska Plovidba d.d. has

SECTION 50

#1732783119763

3016-417: The vehicle's intended usage. For example, a drag car maximizes traction at the rear axle while countering the reactionary pitch-up torque. It generates this counter-torque by placing a small amount of counterweight at a great distance forward of the rear axle. In the airline industry , load balancing is used to evenly distribute the weight of passengers, cargo, and fuel throughout an aircraft, so as to keep

3074-424: The world's merchant fleets, and they range in size from single-hold mini-bulk carriers to mammoth ore ships able to carry 400,000  metric tons of deadweight (DWT). A number of specialized designs exist: some can unload their own cargo, some depend on port facilities for unloading, and some even package the cargo as it is loaded. Over half of all bulk carriers have Greek, Japanese, or Chinese owners, and more than

3132-658: The world, hauling ore from the Terminal Marítimo de Ponta da Madeira in Brazil to the Europoort near Rotterdam in the Netherlands . Even at these ports, passage must be timed to coincide with high tides to prevent the ship running aground. Berge Stahl made this trip about ten times each year, or a round-trip about every five weeks. The newly opened deep-water iron ore wharf at Caofeidian in China received

3190-459: Was coastal . However, on the Great Lakes, bulk carriers hauled vast amounts of iron ore from Minnesota and Michigan's northern mines to the steel mills. In 1929, 73 million tons of iron ore was transported on the Lakes, and an almost equal amount of coal, limestone, and other products were also moved. Two defining characteristics of bulk carriers were already emerging: the double bottom , which

3248-722: Was 106 years old. As of 2005, the United States Maritime Administration counted 6,225 bulk carriers of 10,000  DWT or greater worldwide. More bulk carriers are registered in Panama , with 1,703 ships, more than any four other flag states combined. In terms of the number of bulk carriers registered, the top five flag states also include Hong Kong with 492 ships, Malta (435), Cyprus (373), and China (371). Panama also dominates bulk carrier registration in terms of deadweight tonnage . Positions two through five are held by Hong Kong, Greece, Malta, and Cyprus. Greece, Japan, and China are

3306-666: Was adopted in 1890, and the triangular structure of the ballast tanks, which was introduced in 1905. After World War II, an international bulk trade began to develop among industrialized nations , particularly between the European countries, the United States and Japan. Due to the economics of this trade, ocean bulk carriers became larger and more specialized. In this period, Great Lakes freighters increased in size, to maximize economies of scale, and self-unloaders became more common to cut turnaround time . The thousand-footers of

3364-480: Was built in 1986 by Hyundai Heavy Industries . The vessel was 342.08 m (1,122 ft) long, had a beam , or width, of 63.5 m (208 ft), and a draft , or depth in the water, of 23 m (75 ft). Her MAN B&W 7L90MCE diesel engine drove a single 9 m (30 ft) propeller giving a top speed of 13.5 knots (25.0 km/h; 15.5 mph). Because of its massive size, Berge Stahl could originally only tie up, fully loaded, at two ports in

#762237