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Triple-E Ship Leaves Port With World Record Load

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Re: Triple-E Ship Leaves Port With World Record Load

#41
post #24

21 years ago I was in a Korean shipyard where the largest container ships of the day were being built. Their capacity was 6000 TEUs, one-third of the Mary Maersk. The captain of one of the ships (a 27 year old (!) German woman) told me most ports cannot handle the 6000 TEU vessels, so their line will be building mainly 4500 TEU ships. One interesting thing is that those older, smaller ships had more powerful engines…

A few years ago I sailed past the port of Felixstowe and we saw the big ships being loaded. The captain said something like "those cranes can handle a ship 19 containers wide. When they built them people said it was madness, that there would never be a ship that big. Well, they're at 17 now, so they're worried they'll have to replace them soon."

Re: Triple-E Ship Leaves Port With World Record Load

#42
post #24

21 years ago I was in a Korean shipyard where the largest container ships of the day were being built. Their capacity was 6000 TEUs, one-third of the Mary Maersk. The captain of one of the ships (a 27 year old (!) German woman) told me most ports cannot handle the 6000 TEU vessels, so their line will be building mainly 4500 TEU ships. One interesting thing is that those older, smaller ships had more powerful engines…

Fuel costs have increased hugely since. The present generation of ships are designed for "slow steaming", ~13 kt, at a very significant fuel savings. That's likely to extend for much of the life of the ships (~20 years, possibly more).

Re: Triple-E Ship Leaves Port With World Record Load

#44
post #24

21 years ago I was in a Korean shipyard where the largest container ships of the day were being built. Their capacity was 6000 TEUs, one-third of the Mary Maersk. The captain of one of the ships (a 27 year old (!) German woman) told me most ports cannot handle the 6000 TEU vessels, so their line will be building mainly 4500 TEU ships. One interesting thing is that those older, smaller ships had more powerful engines…

Interesting to note - the change in interest rates therefore has an impact on the size of ship engines, with lower interest rates resulting in smaller engines (or perhaps engines being run at more efficient speeds in terms of fuel consumption)

It way more directly influences by the bunker rates. Maybe various for a lot of the cargo it makes most sense to have the container vessel sail quicker. However, that's not taken into account while deciding between shipping lines. Further, a shipping line has loads of cargo. Some high value and time critical, some not at all.

Look at historical bunker prices to get an idea. I couldn't find a good link, but the USD/barrel is a nice indication: http://www.infomine.com/investment/metal-prices/crude-oil/al...

Re: Triple-E Ship Leaves Port With World Record Load

#45
post #17
post #11

Seeing the video in the article I was reminded of a corporate video they did a few years ago. I know the director second-hand, and he was basically given free reign to go wherever he wanted and spend as much money as he deemed necessary to make a video that got the size and trust of the brand across. This is the result: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjD9VvhXJrE I think he succeeded - it's one of the best brand vide…

That's a really good video! Any idea what the final budget was? Would be interesting to know how much companies dish out for that sort of thing

USD $2 million[1]

[1] http://www.porttechnology.org/news/we_are_maersk_worlds_larg...

Re: Triple-E Ship Leaves Port With World Record Load

#46
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And as a recreational ocean racing sailer, nothing is more terrifying than seeing one of these bobbing just below the surface.

This is the primary reason the catamaran I'm building has a titanium superstructure. I refuse to let an orphaned cargo container floating in the Pacific be my undoing on a circumnavigation.

When you strike a container at speed all bets are off, regardless of what material your boat is made of. You're in a catamaran, at least you have two hulls rather than just one. And it would appear that the part that is underwater is the most important bit when it comes to striking containers so I'm not sure why you think a titanium superstructure will help you if there is a gaping hole in your hull.

Re: Triple-E Ship Leaves Port With World Record Load

#47
post #11

Seeing the video in the article I was reminded of a corporate video they did a few years ago. I know the director second-hand, and he was basically given free reign to go wherever he wanted and spend as much money as he deemed necessary to make a video that got the size and trust of the brand across. This is the result: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjD9VvhXJrE I think he succeeded - it's one of the best brand vide…

Key line in that video "It's difficult for us, it's easy for our customers and that's what it is all about."

That's the core of any really successful business, package a challenge in such a way that the rest of the world takes it for granted, internalize the complexities and reap the rewards that go with taking the responsibility for doing so.

Excellent corporate video, one of the best I've seen.

Re: Triple-E Ship Leaves Port With World Record Load

#48
Several years ago I traveled from Rio De Janeiro to Capetown on a freighter (although not nearly as large as this Triple-E ship!) There are some ships that still offer paid passage and staying on board of one of these enormous ships, manned by just a small crew, is an amazing experience. I got to visit all the areas of the ship, could wander about during the day, hung out on the bridge with the night watch, visited the engine room etc. Being on the bridge when the building sized ship docks at port is incredible to watch.

Re: Triple-E Ship Leaves Port With World Record Load

#49
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Pick a point on the globe--any point--and Maersk won't be far away." This immediately makes me want to calculate the Maersk pole of inaccessibility just to prove them wrong. Maybe xkcd can get on it. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pole_of_inaccessibility )

Maersk does some land shipping too. But I don't think Maersk (or anyone) does much work shipping across land on Antarctica. They do supply some of the research stations[1], but these tend to be on the coast. Given that, I'd imagine somewhere in the middle on Antarctica would be about the furthest. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maersk_Peary

But if there's a single shipping container at Amundsen-Scott...

Re: Triple-E Ship Leaves Port With World Record Load

#50
post #48

Several years ago I traveled from Rio De Janeiro to Capetown on a freighter (although not nearly as large as this Triple-E ship!) There are some ships that still offer paid passage and staying on board of one of these enormous ships, manned by just a small crew, is an amazing experience. I got to visit all the areas of the ship, could wander about during the day, hung out on the bridge with the night watch, visited t…

This sounds super cool, how do you arrange something like that?
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