Posted on 07/05/2013 9:53:09 AM PDT by Pan_Yan
Shipping group Maersk is bringing the world's largest ship into service this month - but the vessel's sheer size could mean beginning its working life under capacity.
The company has taken delivery of the first of 10 massive "Triple E" container ships each measuring 1,312ft long and capable of holding more than 18,000 standard 20ft shipping containers.
Capable of carrying 16pc more cargo than Maersk's largest vessel currently plying the oceans, the Triple E class was designed to cut costs through economies of scale.
However, the new ship - named Maersk Mc-Kinney Møller - might not deliver those cost savings just yet as several of the just 16 ports certified to handle such a huge vessel have the facilities to its full capacity.
With the Triple E class standing 20 storeys high, not all of these ports have cranes high enough to fully load the vessel.
As a result, when the Maersk Mc-Kinney Møller sets sail on its maiden voyage plying the Asia-Europe sealanes on July 16 it is expected to be carrying a maximum of 14,000 containers - a fifth short of its full load - until the ports it calls at can upgrade their facilities.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
There’s a sort of pleasant quaintness to old movies showing tough looking dock workers loading cargo with big nets and muscle power.
Point taken. Is there an index for them?
200 feet taller than the World Trade Center was tall.
Longer, sorry.
That is a lot of immigrants.
The baltic dry index measures the price of moving raw materials (grain, iron ore, gravel, etc), not of moving containers. The largest recent impact is from China’s curtailing its imports of iron ore, and of excess capacity coming online. Ships moving these raw materials are not compatible with container shipping.
There must be some serious math involved in figuring out the container configuration to make the weight right forward to aft, port to starboard and top to bottom.
I sure couldn’t do that math. Heh.
Point taken. Is there an index for container shipping?
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