Characteristics of bulk carries
Bulk carriers are designed to carry various bulk cargoes, such as ore, coal, mineral fertilizers, building materials or grain, as well as any cargo that can simply be poured into holds without packing, i.e. in bulk or in bulk. The vessels can be either highly specialized (ore carriers, cement carriers, coal carriers, grain carriers, or timber carriers) or universal carriers carrying any bulk cargo.
Mini bulk carriers with a deadweight of up to 10,000 tons are mainly designed for coastal voyages.
Seawaymax refers to vessels whose maximum dimensions allow passage by the St. Lawrence Waterway (the name of the system of canals and locks from Montreal to Lake Erie, including the Welland Canal and the Great Lakes Waterway) from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes in North America. The maximum dimensions of the ships are correspondingly smaller: length 225.6 m (740 ft), width 23.8 m (78 ft), and draft 7.9 m (26 ft). In addition to the lock limits, there are separate sections on the canals with limiting drafts of 12.5 m, 10.7 m, 11.3 m, and 8.2 m.
Handysize and Handymax are traditionally the most common dry bulk carriers with deadweight up to 60,000 tons. Handymax ships are usually 150-200 m long. The main feature of Handymax bulk carriers is their own cranes with an average lifting capacity of 30 tons, which enables them to carry out cargo operations cheaper and in ports where there are no facilities for loading/unloading bulk carriers.
Panamax - bulk carriers are so named because of the limitation in the size of the vessels passing through the Panama Canal: width up to 32.31 m, maximum length up to 294.13 m, draft up to 12.04 m in fresh tropical water, maximum height - 57.91 m. The average deadweight of these vessels is 65,000 tons. They mainly carry coal and grain.
Capesize (from cape and size) are vessels which, because of their big size, cannot pass through the Panama or Suez Canals and have to sail around Cape Horn in South America or the Cape of Good Hope in the South of Africa. Usually they have deadweight over 150,000 tons. There are ore carriers with deadweight up to 400,000 tons. Such vessels are highly specialized: Coal and ore account for 93% of the cargo they carry. These vessels serve deep-water terminals.
Design vessel characteristics are the most important input data for correct selection of port transshipment equipment. Depending on what kind of vessels are or will be handled at the terminal, the required cargo characteristic of a portal crane (dependence of lifting capacity on outreach) or ship-loading machine parameters (length and height of the boom, range of the shuttle, etc.) depend on it.
In addition, dimensions of bulk carriers and design of covers covering holds influence on variant of design of the dome shelter "MANTIA" designed to protect cargo placed in the hold of a ship from atmospheric precipitation when loading hygroscopic bulk cargo, and also to protect water area from dust generated in the process of loading.
For ease of filling in the questionnaires in the table below is a table with the main dimensions of bulk carriers for the transport of coal. Vessels for transporting mineral fertilizers or grain will have close values of dimensions. Significant deviations will be for specialised ore carriers due to high bulk density of cargo.
Classification of bulk carriers by deadweight:
Mini bulk carriers with a deadweight of up to 10,000 tons are mainly designed for coastal voyages.
Seawaymax refers to vessels whose maximum dimensions allow passage by the St. Lawrence Waterway (the name of the system of canals and locks from Montreal to Lake Erie, including the Welland Canal and the Great Lakes Waterway) from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes in North America. The maximum dimensions of the ships are correspondingly smaller: length 225.6 m (740 ft), width 23.8 m (78 ft), and draft 7.9 m (26 ft). In addition to the lock limits, there are separate sections on the canals with limiting drafts of 12.5 m, 10.7 m, 11.3 m, and 8.2 m.
Handysize and Handymax are traditionally the most common dry bulk carriers with deadweight up to 60,000 tons. Handymax ships are usually 150-200 m long. The main feature of Handymax bulk carriers is their own cranes with an average lifting capacity of 30 tons, which enables them to carry out cargo operations cheaper and in ports where there are no facilities for loading/unloading bulk carriers.
Panamax - bulk carriers are so named because of the limitation in the size of the vessels passing through the Panama Canal: width up to 32.31 m, maximum length up to 294.13 m, draft up to 12.04 m in fresh tropical water, maximum height - 57.91 m. The average deadweight of these vessels is 65,000 tons. They mainly carry coal and grain.
Capesize (from cape and size) are vessels which, because of their big size, cannot pass through the Panama or Suez Canals and have to sail around Cape Horn in South America or the Cape of Good Hope in the South of Africa. Usually they have deadweight over 150,000 tons. There are ore carriers with deadweight up to 400,000 tons. Such vessels are highly specialized: Coal and ore account for 93% of the cargo they carry. These vessels serve deep-water terminals.
Design vessel characteristics are the most important input data for correct selection of port transshipment equipment. Depending on what kind of vessels are or will be handled at the terminal, the required cargo characteristic of a portal crane (dependence of lifting capacity on outreach) or ship-loading machine parameters (length and height of the boom, range of the shuttle, etc.) depend on it.
In addition, dimensions of bulk carriers and design of covers covering holds influence on variant of design of the dome shelter "MANTIA" designed to protect cargo placed in the hold of a ship from atmospheric precipitation when loading hygroscopic bulk cargo, and also to protect water area from dust generated in the process of loading.
For ease of filling in the questionnaires in the table below is a table with the main dimensions of bulk carriers for the transport of coal. Vessels for transporting mineral fertilizers or grain will have close values of dimensions. Significant deviations will be for specialised ore carriers due to high bulk density of cargo.
Dimensions of coal carrier bulk carriers (Processing of the IHS Fairplay vessel database as of January 2016)
