Introduction of container ships ① Focusing on cargo flow, terminal facilities, and port traffic handling status

Many people who invest in and are interested in the shipping industry must have read a lot of articles about the movement of the SCFI index in 2022 and the profits of a domestic ocean shipping company called HMM. HMM (011200) operates its business by owning bulk carriers and oil tankers.

 

The company, which was about -300 billion in operating profit in 2019, is expected to achieve an operating profit of 1 trillion won in 2020, 7.3 trillion won in 2021, and 10 trillion won in 2022. Since Hyundai Motor's operating profit in 2021 is about 6.7 trillion won and 9.4 trillion won in 2022, it seems that we can estimate how much profit a company called HMM has made.

 

In this series, I will introduce the market movement and key points of container ships, one of the national key industries.

First, like the last time, let's summarize the overview and introduction of container ships.

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1.    Types of container ships

 

A container ship literally means a ship that carries containers. Here, a container is a box-shaped container for cargo transportation, suitable for repeated use as it has semi-permanent properties, and means a transport container developed to facilitate transportation convenience so that there is no need for loading work to move and load cargo during transportation.

 

Conventional ships, such as bulk carriers described above, encountered problems such as delays in loading and unloading and docking time in the process of economic development and rapid increase in cargo volume. Therefore, after World War II, container transportation with a mechanized method was introduced to keep pace with the mass production system of each country.

Container ships are classified into LO-LO (Lift on/Lift off) and RO-RO (Roll on/Roll off) methods depending on the loading method. In general, most of the container ships we know are based on the LO-LO method, where the gantry crane moves back and forth to load and unload containers vertically.

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On the other hand, the RO-RO method is used in Ferry Boats that transport cars or railroad cars. Even in a port where there is no land crane, it is a ramp that connects the land and the ship, and it means that loading and unloading in the horizontal direction is possible. The RO-RO method is inferior in terms of loading efficiency, but it has the advantage of short distance transportation as the cargo loading and unloading time is shortened.

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2.    Distribution route of container cargo

 

Looking at the order of container export, the shipper first requests shipment from the forwarder. At this time, the forwarder prepares a shipping request and submits it to the shipping company, and also requests an empty container loan. After that, cargo loading is carried out after seailng work in the presence of customs officers. Containers that have been loaded are transported from the shipper's factories and warehouses and are placed in a waiting state for shipment at the departure terminal CY. Containers waiting in CY are transported to the Marshalling Yard again, loaded according to the stowage planning, and then loaded onto the final ship to depart.

 

Imports can be viewed as the opposite of exports. Containers arriving at the port of import are waiting at the Marshalling Yard and then transported to CY to prepare for unloading. After that, it is transported to the place designated by the consignee in bonded state, and after opening the seal in the presence of customs, the cargo is extracted and the final shipment is completed.

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3.     Main container terminal facilities and equipment

 

The container terminal is located at the interface between sea and land, and performs loading and unloading of container ships, while delivering containers to trucks and railways, equipment, repair, maintenance, and cleaning. It has all the features like. Let me tell you about the main facilities of marine container terminals with such diverse functions.

 

▶ CFS(Container Freight Station)

This is where the loading and unloading of cargo into and out of containers takes place. In particular, if the cargo of a single shipper is not filled in 1 UNIT container, these small cargoes (LCL cargo: Less Than Container Load Cargo) are made into a consolidated or FCL (Full Container Load) in CFS and loaded on the main ship, and from the main ship. This is an indoor space for sorting unloaded FCL containers and transferring them to each consignee.

 

▶ CY(Container Yard)

This is a place where containers are stored/accumulated and received/delivered. Broadly speaking, it also includes the meaning of container terminals including CFS, Marshaling Yard, Apron, etc. However, in the case of container terminals, it is difficult to distinguish them from the Marshaling Yard, so the place where loading and unloading is carried out between ships is called Apron. For reference, Apron is a space where crane rails are installed along the quay wall so that the gantry crane can move and work, and the cargo movement route is in the order of CFS -> CY -> Apron -> Loading.

 

 

The main equipment for terminal handling is also explained as shown in the figure below.

▶ Gantry Crane

It is a crane specially designed for unloading containers and moves back and forth using the rails installed on the apron. Gantry Crane is designed to lift about 50 tons of cargo at a time, although the loading/unloading weight is different depending on the design.

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▶ Transfer Crane

It is a yard crane that has movable wheels under two running angles installed at regular intervals from the pillars of the pier and rolls containers up and down the pillars to carry out loading and takeover/delivery. It is mainly used when loading/unloading containers on chassis or trailers in CY.

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▶ Reach Stacker

It is a yard equipment that transfers containers within the yard or unloads them from the chassis and loads them within the yard. It mainly handles empty containers and is the most commonly used loading and unloading facility at small container handling docks.

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4.    Current Status of World Container Port Volume

 

Previously, we looked at the facilities of container ship terminals, so let's check how much cargo is handled at container terminals for each port in each country.

This is the volume handling performance of the world's 20th largest container port. The ranking is Shanghai, Singapore and Ningbo in that order, and the top 9 ports are all Asian ports. Our country's Busan Port is also steadily keeping the top ranking within the 5th to 7th, and when looking at the trends of the last 5 years, 1) Hong Kong, Dubai, and Kaohsiung, rather, it can be seen that the volume of goods has decreased from 17 to 21 years. 2) Looking at LA/LB Ports and New York Ports in the US, it can be confirmed that the North American cargo volume increased in 2021 and led the market.

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Finally, let's look at global container throughput by year. Water throughput will decrease in 2020 (-1.1%) due to Covid-19 and in 2022 (-1.8%) due to economic recession concerns. However, it is expected to recover slightly to 0.5% in 2023 and to increase again by 2.9% in 2024.

 

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