Ships Get Bigger and Global Ports Expand

Ocean shipping rates are influenced by supply and demand. In recent years, shipping companies ordered large numbers of new freighters to provide increased capacity. Unfortunately, just as many of those new ships were being delivered, bulk freighter charter rates fell to drastically low levels.

Meanwhile, investment in extremely large freighters has been very significant. Some of the newest ships are of massive size and capacity never seen before. The Panama Canal completed a major expansion project in June 2016 that enables it to handle much higher cargo volume and much larger ships.

New ship construction for shipping giant Maersk has been very highly innovative. The first of its enormous Triple-E ships, built by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering in Korea, was delivered in 2014. Each ship is 1,312 feet long, 193.5 feet wide and 239.5 feet high. They are capable of holding 18,000 twenty-foot equivalent (TEU) containers each, about 2,500 more than the previous generation of largest ships. They have been designed to operate very advantageously, with 20% lower carbon emissions and 35% lower fuel usage per container than typical large ships.

Ship and Tanker Sizes

Handy and Handymax less than 60,000 dwt*

Panamax 50,000 - 80,000 dwt

Aframax 80,000 - 115,000 dwt

Capesize 80,000 - 175,000 dwt

Suezmax 120,000 - 150,000 dwt

VLCC 150,000 - 320,000 dwt

ULCC 300,000 - 550,000 dwt

*dwt stands for dead weight tonnage

The Biggest Container Ships:

PS-class container ships capable of carrying 11,000 TEUs (twenty-foot containers)

E-class 14,770 TEUs

Triple-E 1,312 feet long and capable of carrying 18,000 TEUs

Post Panamax

Post Panamax, Super Post Panamax and Ultra Post Panamax refers to ships of great size. The widening of the Panama Canal, being completed at a cost of more than $5 billion, means that ships as long as 1,200 feet with a beam of as much as 160 feet are able to traverse the Panama Canal and are referred to as NeoPanamax. This includes larger cruise ships, such as the Disney Adventure and the Norwegian Bliss. However, a small number of the largest new cruise ships, such as Royal Caribbean International’s Icon of the Seas and Star of the Seas are too wide for the new Panama Canal locks (each has a beam of 217 feet).

The size of a tanker generally determines the market in which it can work. Handymax and Panamax ships work in small, short-haul markets, typically serving small islands and other isolated markets. Aframax and Suezmax mid-size tankers are the most versatile ships and can be used for both short- and long-haul runs. This versatility also makes the markets these ships serve the most competitive. VLCC and ULCC (Very Large Crude Carrier and Ultra Large Crude Carrier, respectively) ships serve the long-haul markets, such as from the Middle East to the western U.S. or Western Europe. Some of these ships are so large that they need custom facilities in order to dock. In fact, many of the largest ships utilize offshore terminals miles from the coast and rarely call on land-based ports.

SPOTLIGHT: Automated Cargo Vessels

One way to cut costs is to reduce or eliminate crews on cargo vessels, according to some ship industry planners. This is done by automating many ship operations, such as machinery monitoring, and even basic navigation through open water. On-shore captains command multiple ships through live data feeds that include video and infrared imaging. Small crews are placed on board when ships dock or embark, much as pilots come onboard to assist with navigation. Another benefit of automated shipping is slower, longer voyages which would not require the expense of housing crew members but would afford the savings in fuel attained by lower speeds. Some analysts say that a 30% reduction in speed by a bulk carrier results in the use of 50% less fuel.

Operational automated cargo vessels are in use, primarily as short-sea shipping or container feeders. Examples include Norway’s Yara Birkeland, China’s Xi Jay Aspiring Flight and the UK/USA’s Mayflower Autonomous Ship. Although technically a research vessel, the Mayflower Autonomous Ship demonstrated fully autonomous, crewless trans-Atlantic capabilities in 2022

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