Bulk carrier

Bulk carrier
See also
Transloading Types of transport Batch picking Sea freight Weep hole Liner terms Stacking height Green power Freight

Bulk carrier is a type of a ship that transfers load shipments in bulk quantities. The most common shipload is loose type which means that it does not have any particular packaging and it carries objects like ores, coals, cement or food grains, but sometimes there also is some place for liquefied cargoes (Dimitrova & Blanpain, 2010).

Bulk carrier types

There is few common types of bulk carriers and here is some of them:

• Ultramax - the newest design in the marketplace. They provide ecological solution as they have eco engine. Their deadweight is from 62,000 to 65,000 tons. The improved version of Supermax can hold to 5 cargos hold.
• Handymax and Supermax -their deadweight hold can be from 40,000 tons to 50,000 tons in Handymax and from 50,000 to 60,000 tons in Supermax. Their maximum cargo hold is 5.
• Panamax bulk carriers - Here deadweight can go from 70,000 to 80,000 tons, and can have 7 cargos hold. Main reason that they have a name like this is that their size is maximum size allowed to transit through the Panama Canal.
• Handysize - they usually are loaded with 5 to 4 cargos holds and their interval is within 15,000 to 39,000 tons. Also there is a variety that is called „Loggers” that are much heavier construction and they can hold logs (Banks et al., 2013).
• Mini bulk carrier - they can hold deadweight even up to 15,000 tons, which comparing to its bigger brothers isn't that impressive but still can hold on a lot of cargo (Banks et al., 2013).

Bulk carriers load

Bulk carriers carry load such as: Coal Ore Cement Grains Such as; oil seeds, cereals, by-products that are left from processing these products, rice, oats, some wheat and others. Bulk carriers do not carry cargo such as: Steels Vehicles Timbers (Buxton, 2012)

Bulk package

To a bulk carriers goes bulk packages that have certain rules to fit in this term and all of them revolve about maximum net mass or capacity that has to be greater than:

• 119 gallons when it comes to liquids and solid receptacles.
• 882 pounds when it comes to deadweight.

All that is equal or less than that is considered as a non-bulk packaging and does not go to bulk carriers (United States, Maritime Administration & Office of Subsidy Administration, 1987).

References

• Banks, C., Turan, O., Incecik, A., Theotokatos, G., Izkan, S., Shewell, C., & Tian, X. (2013). Understanding ship operating profiles with an aim to improve energy efficient ship operations, In Proceedings of the low carbon shipping conference, London (Vol. 9).
• Buxton, I. L. (2012). Cargo access equipment for merchant ships, Springer Science & Business Media.
• Dimitrova, D. N., & Blanpain, R. (2010). Seafarers' rights in the globalized maritime industry, Kluwer Law International BV, (Vol. 75).
• Moustafa, M. M., Yehia, W., & Hussein, A. W. (2015). Energy efficient operation of bulk carriers by trim optimization, In International Conference on Ships and Shipping Research (Vol. 48).
• Oldenburg, M., & Jensen, H. J. (2012). Merchant seafaring: a changing and hazardous occupation, Occup Environ Med, 69(9), 685-688.
• United States, Maritime Administration & Office of Subsidy Administration (1987). Bulk Carriers in the World Fleet, U.S. Department of Commerce, Maritime Administration.

Author: Katarzyna Atłas