Project Cargo and Heavy Lifts [PDF]

Zitiervorschau

Project Cargo Special By A. Peterse

Project Cargo and Heavy Lifts Developments, Design Considerations, Operational Aspects and Market Expectations Wikipedia states that project cargo ‘is a term used to broadly describe the national or international transportation of large, heavy, high value or critical (to the project they are intended for) pieces of equipment.’ The need for this type of transportation has resulted in specific ship types. An overview of the development of multi-purpose/ heavy lift vessels.

Wikipedia’s definition is rather broad, yet it is in line with the common use of this term, together with even broader cargo categories such as “general cargo” and “break bulk”, that is, any dry cargo which is not unitised and not (major) bulk. In its bi-annual market reviews, Drewry [1] distinguishes a number of dry cargo segments, as depicted in the table below. Drewry emphasises two points: • Project cargo is ‘the invisible break bulk volume: it has become the foundation of the most dynamic part of the break bulk market, but no trade or port statistics exist.’ • Project cargo is carried on multi-purpose/heavy lift vessels, but – depending on prevailing conditions of their specific market segment – container vessels, roll-on/roll-off (ro-ro) ships, gearless coasters and bulkers, will take their share. These factors complicate any attempt to analyse and forecast market conditions.

Project cargo on container flatbeds.

Global Break-Bulk Market Outlook 10

Dry cargo market segments Dry Cargo

Bulk Cargo

Non Bulk Cargo

2008

(mill.t)

Major Bulk Cargo

Major Bulk Cargo

Major Bulk Cargo

Minor Bulk Cargo

Other Minor Bulk Cargo

Other Minor Bulk Cargo

Phosrock, bauxite, other

Neo/AgriBulk Cargo

Neo/Agri-Bulk Cargo

Iron & steel, forest products, fertilisers, sugar, rice

Unitised General Cargo

Containerised General Cargo

General cargo in containers

1,389

Other Unitised General Cargo

General cargo in trailers (short sea)

Specialised General Cargo

Reefer, vehicles

Non - Specialised Breakbulk General Cargo

All types of non-unitised general & project cargo

General Cargo

Non - Unitised General Cargo

Iron ore, coal, grain

Est. Global Seaborne Cargo

Primary Cargo Markets for Multi-Purpose Ships

1,981

Major Bulk

(30)

(Multi-Purpose ships part)

556

Other Minor Bulk

(109) 619 (121)

(Multi-Purpose ships part)

Neo/Agri-Bulk (Multi - Purpose ships part)

Competing Vessel Types Bulk carriers

Handy bulkers

Handy bulkers Ro-Ro ships

Containerised General Cargo

Con tainerships Ro-Ro ships Con-bulkers

415

Other Unitised General Cargo

Ro-Ro ships Ferries

66

Specialised General Cargo

(24)

259

(Multi -Purpose ships part)

Non -Specialised Breakbulk General Cargo

Reeferships Car carriers Ro-Ro ships Ro-Ro ships Heavy lift ships

Source: Drewry

Dry bulk cargo market segments (by Drewry).

14

Project cargo on a open top, gearless vessel, the Oceanic (picture by Flying Focus).

SWZ|MARITIME

Arie Peterse is member of the Supervisory Board and former Managing Director of BigLift Shipping BV.

As far as heavy lifts are concerned – arbitrarily: any indivisible load over 100 mt – it can easily be identified which industry sector drives the demand for heavy lift transportation: Industry Sector Projects Oil and gas Offshore exploitation, FPSOs (floating pro- duction storage and offloading), oil refiner- ies, LNG plants, petrochemical complexes Power generation & distribution Oil/gas fired power plants, renewables Mining Mines and export facilities Water Desalination plants Infrastructure Bridges, tunnels, port, rail Shipbuilding

Heavy Lifts Jackets, top sides, turrets, reels, carousels, reactors, columns, furnaces, heat exchangers, modules, pipe racks Turbines, generators, boilers, heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) modules, transformers, wind turbine foundations, transition pieces, towers, nacelles Wharf decks, (un)loaders, dump trucks Desalination blocks Steel structure, tunnel boring machines (TBMs), (container)cranes, locomotives, rolling stock Ship sections, marine engines, dredging equipment, tugs, barges, yachts

Note: For specific projects, especially offshore projects or plant construction in remote areas, the project owner and contractors may decide on a modular way of construction to reduce the number of man-hours on the construction site and to enhance control of quality and project schedule. Ocean transportation of large, heavy modules by specialised flat-deck module carriers or tug-barge combinations is not part of this overview, nor is the specialised market of ocean transport of large loads by semi-submersible vessels.

Multi-purpose and Heavy Lift Vessels: a Brief History Before the era of containerisation, heavy lifts and project cargoes could be transported on general cargo liner vessels, many of which were equipped with heavy lift gear, such as the vessels of Hansa-Linie, see picture below. When around the 1970s containerisation became the standard in liner shipping, a niche was created for specialised heavy lift shipping. The first steps into this market were made on the basis of converted coaster tonnage: a heavy derrick was installed, sponsoons were added to create stability.

The Ank Winsemius was converted from a coaster in 1969 and fitted with a 60-mt derrick.

The Gloria Virentium was built in 1977 and was equipped with two 400-mt derricks and a DDG Hansa’s Uhenfels built in1967, with a lift capacity of 2 x 275-mt with Stülcken derricks.

Jaargang 140 •

ro-ro ramp.

15

Project Cargo Special

The Dock Express 11, built in 1979, with originally two gantries of 600 mt, ro-ro and flo-flo.

OPEC net oil export revenues between 1972 and 2007 (source: Marefa.org).

The need for more modern heavy lift vessels became clear and newbuilds came into the market. These were still relatively small vessels, such as the Gloria Virentium built in 1977. Since the OPEC oil embargo in 1973, the Middle East countries quickly became “oil rich” and decided to not just rely on exporting crude, but to industrialise their countries on a large scale, starting with oil refineries and petrochemical plants. Large areas of desert were developed as new industrial cities, including a totally new infrastructure of ports, power generation, desalination plants, et cetera. The demand for heavy lift transportation boomed, especially since quite a number of the plants were built on a modular basis – a

Category Heavy lift MPVs* Premium heavy lift MPVs**

new development for on-land plants – made possible by the introduction of sophisticated hydraulic self propelled modular transporters (SPMTs), that could be combined in any configuration, were electronically controlled and 360 degrees steerable. New, larger heavy lift tonnage was built on the basis of contracts for these Middle East developments, including the “Project”, “Scan” and “Dock Express” vessels.

Development of the Multi-purpose/Heavy-lift Carrier In practice, the term “multi-purpose vessel” (MPV) is used to cover a wide range of ship types. DNV-GL [2] distinguishes five categories with, understandably, quite some overlap. These categories are explained in the table on the next page. Of these five categories, the “multi-purpose project carrier” is primarily designed to carry project cargo and heavy lifts. The DNV-GL “MPV update 2017” [3] gives an age analysis of this tonnage:

Number of vessels per age group