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cargo, such as grains, coal, iron ore, and cement. Over the years
this ship type have grown in size and sophistication. Todays
bulkers are specially designed to maximize capacity, safety,
efficiency, and to be able to withstand the rigors of their work.
Bulkers represents about 40% of the worlds merchant fleet and
the development of freight prizes are often used as an indicator of
the world economy through the Baltic Dry Index.
Bulker Size & Classes
Bulker are categorized into four main classes, Handysize, Handymax/Supramax, Panamax, Capesize that describe their
size. The unit used for defining size of bulkers is DWT (dead weight tons) also known as metric dead weight tons and
describes how much weight a ship can carry.
Handysize: DWT 10 000 35 000
Handymax/Supramax: DWT 35 000 59 000
Panamax: DWT 60 000 80 000
Capesize: DWT 80 000
Further, there are also a number of abbreviations to describe bulk carriers especially in the lager segments with terms like
VLOC (very large ore carrier), VLBC (very large bulk carrier), ULOC (ultra large ore carrier), ULBC (ultra large bulk
carrier).
Bulker types & design
General Design
A bulker is designed with one (smaller vessels) or several cargo holds and it is purpose (the type of cargo it will carry) that
defines the design of the ship. Speed of the vessels is between 13 to 15 knots and depending on size they can be
equipped with either two-stroke or medium speed engines. Hatch covers that covers the cargo holds covers about
60-70% of cargo holds length. In order to maximize loading and off loading efficiency the hatches should be as large as
possible but it also presents structural problems and increased stress to the hull.
Bulker types
Bulkers can be split into two main categories Geared Bulk Carriers and Gearless Bulk Carriers. A Geared carrier
means that the ship is equipped with equipment for loading and off loading a port. Thus, this type is not dependent on
land based equipment. A Gearless carrier is the opposite, a ship that need assistant from equipment installed at port.
and
meter long and 68 meter wide (beam), draght of 24,6 and depth 29,8 meters. It had a capacity of 564 763 DWT and top
speed 16knots. From top speed to stop it required 8 000 meters or 5 1/2 mile. The ship is not in service anymore as it was
scrapped in 2010.
LNG/LPG
ships that specially designed to transport liquefied gas please click
Product Tankers
Is a ship designed for transporting refined products from the refineries such as gasoline, diesel oil and aviation fuel.
Product tankers are available from small tanker barges up sizes of 170 000 DWT and is the most common tanker type.
Chemical Tanker
Is a ship that is designed to transport different kinds of chemicals but are also able to transport the same products as the
Product Tanker. A chemical tanker is in most cases more advanced than the Product Tanker when comes to the cargo
handling system as have to avoid mixing of the products it is transporting.
Other Tankers
Apart from whats been described above there a number of specialized tankers like
and
Carrier
This ship type is specially designed to transport petroleum gas like
and
CNG Carrier
Is a ship that is designed to transport Compressed Natural Gas. A CNG carrier is at the time of writing still only a concept
ship and no ship has been built yet. More information could be found
A container ship is a ship that carry all of its cargo in standardized truck-size containers. A container is either 20 or 40 feet
long, 8 feet wide and 8 or 8,6 feet high. To increase revenues, high cube containers with heights of 96 have come into
common use. Fortunately, most container ships can carry containers of mixed heights without significant difficulty.
Containerships generally carry a mix of 20 and 40 containers, and some are fitted for deck stowage of 45 and 48
lengths.
Over the years goods transported in containers has increased and is increasing due to the flexibility and easy of cargo
handling at port. One example is that containers are taking over the Reefer market. Today, approximately 90% of non-bulk
cargo worldwide is transported by container. Containers ships is also many time referred to as Box-Ships
Container ship size & Classes
Container ships have constantly been growing in size and today they are seriously competing with the ULCC Tankers of
being the largest ships in the world. It is the economy-of-scale that is driving the growth in ship size. Unlike the Bulker and
Tanker segment Container ships are defined by its capacity in number of containers they able to carry. The term used is
TEU and is an abbreviation from Twenty Feet Equivalent Units. One of the first container ships, the US Ideal X, owned by
Malcom Mclean, had a capacity of 58 containers in on its first voyage in April 1956. Todays largest Container ship
deveivered 2007, the Emma Maersk, officially have a capacity of 11 000 TEUs and is 357 meters long & 56 m wide.
Industry sources however estimates the capacity to be between 13 000 15 000 TEUs. Today the industry is looking into
construction even larger ships, 18 000+ TEUs.
Panamax: 4 500 5 000 TEU
Post Panamax: 5 000 10 000 TEU
Suezmax: 10 000 -15 5000 TEU
Post Suezmax: 15 500 TEU< (This ship type does not exist yet but is being discussed)
Container Designed & Type
General Design
Containers are generally designed with either one or two medium speed engines or slow-speed (2-stroke) engines
depending on ship size. Design speed is about 15 27 knots. In general bigger ships needs go faster due longer port
stay for offloading. Smaller vessel can be (geared) equipped with equipment for self offloading of containers while the
larger gearless ships is dependent on port equipment.
ULCS
Abbriviation of Ultra Large Container Ship and today are able to carry more than 10 000 TEU. Speed is usually 25 +
knots and the vessels are gearless.
).
ConRO
The ConRo vessel is a hybrid between a RORO and a container ship. This type of vessel has a below-decks area used
for vehicle storage while stacking containerized freight on the top decks. Examples of ConRo ships such as those in the
fleet of Atlantic Container Line can carry a combination of 1,900 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers, up to
1,000 TEUs of heavy equipment, as well as project and oversized cargo on three decks and up to 2,000 automobiles on
five decks. Separate internal ramp systems within the vessel segregate automobiles from other vehicles, mafi trailers and
breakbulk cargo.
RoLo
A RoLo (roll-on lift-off) vessel is another hybrid vessel type with ramps serving vehicle decks but with other cargo decks
accessible only by crane.
More information about RoRo could be found here and here.
Is designed to carry cargo and passengers. RoPax is an abbreviation between Roll-On Ro-
and Pax which in turn is an abbreviation of passenger. There are a lot of variants of this ship
type e. i. single hull or multi hull pax/vehicle, pax/vehicle, train, truck etc..
Hovercraft
A hovercraft (air-cushion vehicle, ACV) is a craft capable of
travelling over surfaces while supported by a cushion of slow
moving, high-pressure air which is ejected against the surface
below and contained within a skirt (se image). Because they are
supported by a cushion of air, hovercraft are unique among all
other forms of ground transportation in their ability to travel
equally well over land, ice, and water.
Passenger Hydrofoil
A hydrofoil ship is a ship with
wings mounted underneath the hull that lifts the ship partially out of the water (se
image). The first ship boat with this technique was built in 1909. This ship is not so
common as ship types conventional hull designed but are used in some places.
The offshore segment it self is more than big enough for site of its
own (and there are a few) however I will only focus on the ship
types used for supporting this industry. The offshore vessel
segment has increased over the past decade due to extensive
exploration of new fields in deeper waters than ever before.
Vessels in this segment are highly specialized and I will only
briefly go through most common types.
The offshore market is characterized by vessels built for
assistance in oil extraction and exploration at sea. The
specifications of the vessels depend on whether they are built
primarily to move drilling rigs and their anchors, to deliver goods
and supplies to oil rigs, to act as safety and fire-fighting vessels
(stand-byvessels) or for other purposes required to maintain and
expand oil production at sea. The North Sea and the Gulf of
Mexico are the largest markets for offshore vessels, but other
areas such as western Africa, Canada, the Far East and Brazil employ an ever-increasing share of the global fleet.
Apart from the more common offshore ship types, there exist numerous types of offshore related ships that have very
specific characteristics.
These include:
AHT(Anchore, Handling Tug)
AHTS (Anchor, Handling, Tug & Supply)
Drill Ship
PSV (platform supply vessel)
Fire Fighting Vessel
Safety Stand by Vessel
Pipe-laying Vessel
ROV-Support Vessel (Remotely Operated underwater Vehicle)
Seismic Vessel
Diving Support Vessel
FPSO (Floating Production Storage & offtake)
FSO (Floating Storage & offtake)
Oil Well Production Test Vessel
Oil Well Stimulation Vessel