While ‘location, location, location’ is still the project cargo mantra, it appears some box lines and ports are now stealing medium-sized, sub-200 tonne parcels away from traditional routes and handlers.<\/p>\n
It would seem to be a no-brainer for both ports and cargo owners: if a container facility has the space and a lull in operations, why not? After all, as Andreas Mayer of Rickmers Linie admits, they can do it on the cheap, cutting the costs down until the traditional competition really doesn’t stand a chance.<\/p>\n
Jord Ottolander, manager of Samskip’s Multimodal Flats Trade adds that a small but still significant portion of the breakbulk or project cargo market is now going by container vessel on flatracks that allow handling by container crane: \u201cAlthough there is a weight limit and designated area for most ships, if a port, agent or transport company has a very good relationship with the lines then it can cut costs by getting this cargo in six slots, whereas otherwise the line might insist ‘it will kill nine or twelve slots’.\u201d<\/p>\n
But it is a double edged sword for any port that wants to grow this stream further as even flatracked cargo takes extra effort: while this may be fine for a couple of parcels, Mr Mayer says that faced with more or truly oversize pieces a facility will soon realise time on the quay and in the back office \u201cis intense as there is no such thing as a standard piece of project cargo\u201d. This is where he believes that the box ports can fall down: \u201cEven if you have a crane capable of 100 tonne lift it doesn’t solve the problem; you need skilled crane drivers and experienced stevedores to fit the cargo into a dedicated space as well as managing it inside the time limit.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/b><\/p>\n
Question marks<\/b><\/p>\n
So maybe for the properly outsize cargo, the rubric of ‘location, location, location’ should be replaced by ‘location, location… capability’. For example, Mr Mayer explains that routing to the nearest facility won’t necessarily save money. \u201cSome cargo owners for example see a nearby bulk terminal as a way to shorten the route, and although we can say yes, it often means a long reach from the ship using its own gear: this means a specialist vessel, plus of course you need experienced crew. So, overall it doesn’t usually decrease costs.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is why Susan Oatway of Drewry says established project cargo ports like Antwerp and Houston still exert a huge attraction: they have the gear and the connectivity \u201cand this gives them a kind of critical mass\u201d. Both have invested in heavy handling equipment – Houston’s recent mammoth is able to handle 800 tonnes in one go. Beyond this, both Houston and Antwerp have built themselves into the wider business: for example Antwerp is part of a specialist windpower cluster and has a test lab on its doorstep.<\/p>\n
But there’s another element that can’t be ignored: many of the big project cargo ports sit on waterways and it’s this that has helped them grow. After all, as Mrs Oatway explains project cargo \u201cis really the extra\u201d, taking root from existing breakbulk streams which often flow, literally, from upriver production facilities.<\/p>\n
For a change real depth isn’t critical for floating down even quite heavy parcels and Mr Mayer adds that despite the huge sizes, project cargo through Hamburg to sea doesn’t call for any extra deepening. In fact, he adds that the waterways are rising in their usefulness as a cost effective link between manufacturing hotspots and onward shipping as the roads are becoming increasingly restricted by a hotchpotch of local regulations.<\/p>\n
<\/b><\/p>\n
Water access<\/b><\/p>\n
The Szczecin and \u015awinouj\u015bcie port complex on the Baltic Sea is a good example of this kind of evolution: alongside the roads, the Odra River and the Oder-Havel Canal provides a water route to the nearby industrial production and consumption powerhouses of Brandenburg and Berlin (which sits 140km away) so there’s a very solid bulk and breakbulk base to its operations in both directions.<\/p>\n
All this has helped to drive a pretty good mix of the kind of offerings appealing to project cargo: a lot of yard space, a variety of quays, depths and heavy capacity shoreside equipment plus a floating unit which can handle 260 tonne direct barge-to-vessel lifts. So, the complex has not just grown the transhipment of windfarm components, transformers and so on but has developed even further into handling truly difficult moves such as elements for the Sundsvall Bridge in Sweden, one of the increasing number of complex factory-based construction projects that entail logistical challenges at least as big as the modules themselves.<\/p>\n
However, ports also need to show willing if a nearby cargo stream does emerge. Take Bremenports: just after the downturn the large ABC-Halbinsel Autoterminal and the Eurogate container terminal were both only too eager to lease out some potentially lucrative handling and storage areas to the offshore wind industry.<\/p>\n
Despite ‘location’ it didn’t come easy. Not only did the quays need attention but the beds in front of them had to be strengthened as jackup vessels needed to put their feet down.<\/p>\n
Christian Hein, Bremenports offshore engineer explains that in one area dredging out silt and laying down grit was enough, but in another the port had to think harder – literally – to cope with the 7,200 tonnes of pressure per foot of a jackup that needed to land just in front of the quay. It ended up with something it calls ‘elephant feet’, four huge 9m diameter steel barrels designed to hold an impact-deadening fill; placed 19m underwater their reinforced concrete bases have been designed to keep the high loads from passing into the quay itself.<\/p>\n
<\/b><\/p>\n
Making space<\/b><\/p>\n
Bremenports went further: not only did it make space to warehouse the huge three legged base units for the wind towers it also took part in the build of massive offshore electrical components: for example the Trianel windfarm’s substation weighed in at 2,380 tonnes and a couple of years ago the port turned part construction yard as the substation was, by necessity, assembled right there on a slipway before being launched out to sea.<\/p>\n
However, \u201ca lot of it comes down to people\u201d, says Mr Ottolander. It’s no coincidence that established project cargo ports don’t just rely on the freight companies but have their own dedicated teams. \u201cProject cargo will always be difficult and always needs painstaking care. You can’t simply be half hearted about it,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe same type of project cargo can be discharged in two different ports with roughly the same level of technology, but one has the passion for the cargo and the other doesn’t – and the difference is huge. Above all you need flexibility and enthusiastic manpower; really you can’t just say ‘we will have to handle project cargo on the side because container volumes are down’.\u201d<\/p>\n
He concludes: \u201cAlthough the right equipment does half the job all of these things can be worked around if you have the right mindset: I have seen metal tubes 20m long lifted by five pallet trucks in perfect harmony.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Consider storage and onward transportation<\/strong><\/p>\n Drewry\u2019s Susan Oatway says that what’s required for the handling of project cargoes isn’t always the most obvious of attributes: \u201cCranes possibly aren’t as important as warehouses for project cargo\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n After all, cranes and multiaxle SPMTs can be hired in as need be, but rail and roads are increasingly prone to limit the movement of outsize and heavy goods so the ports often need to act as a buffer zone.<\/p>\n Certainly although ports such as Szczecin and \u015awinouj\u015bcie do see project cargo transhipped straight from barge to deeper water vessels, some of it lands on the quay and there’s often a need to consolidate the various parcels for onward shipping. To answer this need these Baltic facilities have over 100,000 square metres of covered space plus several thousand square metres of yard space; Houston too has looked into the logistics and is developing 154,000 square metres of heavy-duty laydown area to go with its project cargo offering.<\/p>\n Storage could therefore prove to be bigger stumbling blocks than the equipment. Rickmers Linie\u2019s Andreas Mayer points out that many ports – especially box ports – would find their warehousing capacity severely squeezed by even a couple of different project shipments arriving at the same time. \u201cPlus you have to know what the requirements are, not just assume you can leave it standing on the quay,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Can a port really do much to attract project cargo? Maybe – but at a price finds Stevie Knight<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":9141,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-9140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-container-cargo-handling"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9140"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9142,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9140\/revisions\/9142"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9140"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=9140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}