Bulk carrier

Bulk carriers ( also called bulk carrier or bulk carriers ) are ships that are used for transporting loose bulk commodities such as iron ore, coal, bauxite, phosphate, cement or grain. Bulk carriers take approximately one third of global maritime transport. Liquid bulk commodities such as crude oil, chemicals and liquid food are transported by tankers.

History

The first bulk carrier in the modern sense were Colliers, sailing ships, which have been used since the 17th century to transport coal from northeast England, to London. In the 1840s steamships were used on this route for the first time as necklaces. While cargo steamer, most of which were designed as general cargo ships, replaced the sailing ships in the decades that followed, the latter could still maintain a relatively long time in the bulk ride. Around 1910 was still to a large extent in the " nitrate trade " went to Chile with sailing ships coal from Europe to South America and from there saltpeter back to Germany. Well-known German sailing ships were here five -masted full-rigged ship Prussia, the five- or four-masted barques Potosi, Pamir, Passat, Peking and others. Until the period after the Second World War, much of the Schüttguttranporte was transported in cargo ships. We defined bulk carriers in these years as Eindeckschiffe with over 10,000 deadweight tons. Only in the post-war years began an increasing specialization of this market segment, which was accompanied by rapidly growing sizes.

Technical

Since some bulk materials tend to slip under movement, this could lead to the inclined position of the vessel up to the capsizing. For this reason, the holds of Massengutfrachten be constructed so that slipping is largely prevented by high altitude and ballast tanks, namely wing tanks, a heeling moment can be balanced. There are pure bulk carriers and combined OBC ( Ore - bulk container) and OBO ( Ore - Bulk - Oil) ships that can load in addition to / instead of the bulk material and container or oil. OBC ( Ore / Ore - bulk / bulk container) ships are indeed complex under construction, but can also transport container. Tank - bulk cargo carriers as OBO (ore / bulk - Ore / Bulk Oil / Oil) ships are also more expensive in construction, but can load dry bulk as opposed to pure tankers on a possible return.

With the force since 1 July 2006 88 Supplementary Protocol to SOLAS 74 this has been revised to give it to the operation of bulk carriers adapt risks involved by binding dictated, among other things, double hull constructions, with the restriction that indicates the resistance of Greece, vessels operating exclusively liquid goods ( tankers), are exempt.

We distinguish pure bulk roughly according to their size:

• Handysize bulk carriers ( 10000-39999 dwt ) in small charge sizes and shipping areas with shallow-draft ports. Handy bulk carriers usually have their own loading gear.
• Supramax bulk carriers, until 2005 officially Handymax ( 40000-59999 dwt ) usually also have their own loading gear,
• Panamax bulk carriers ( 60000-99999 dwt ) which is mainly transport coal, grain and bauxite in the global transport and
• Capesize bulk carrier ( over 100,000 dwt ) which operate almost exclusively in the transportation of iron ore and coal for steel production.

Subspecies of the four main categories are Dunkirkmax, Japanamax, Kamsarmax, Newcastlemax, Setouchmax, Very Large Ore Carrier and Wozmax.

With increasing size of the draft of the vessels increases. Panamax and Capesizebulker have typically does not have their own loading gear. Prices and charter rates of bulk carriers are subjected due to their mostly short-term in relation contracts, cyclical very strong fluctuations. So cost of a 5 year old, charter free Capesizebulker 170,000 dwt beginning of July 2007, approximately $ 101 million; The end of 2005 the cost of a comparable vessel still around 57 million USD. For Capesize bulkers day rates were paid by almost $ 234,000 per day sporadically. In the wake of the economic crisis, the charter for a Capesize vessel are partially fallen to 3,600 U.S. dollars a day.

Currently the largest bulk carrier is built by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering in 2010 Vale Brasil, the Brazilian mining group Vale (formerly CVRD ), with a cargo capacity of about 400,000 tonnes and a length of 362 m. The ship carries out a construction program of 35 ships with capacities 388000-400000 tons.