Shipping

[Micilin]

These very tall ships just look so unstable. The car transporter that fell over in the Solent apparently had pumped ballast and they thought the pumps might have failed. Someone on the tv explained the ship was going round a corner as though that was unusual and scary for a ship to do.

You're right. They do look top heavy, especially with all those shipping containers stacked on deck.

As for going round a corner, not exactly a corner but sailing in a curved path in order to get down the Solent and, more to the point, to avoid the sandbank on which it was beached. Perfectly routine, as far as I know.

Do you think there is an optimum size for seaworthiness? - ie big enough to withstand most storms. That is if ports allowed it -there must eventually be a break even point

Maybe in the future the job of 'tugs ' will be to take ashore containers from even more massive crafts that anchor offshore?

 

[Micilin]

Nice graphical layout 50 largest ports...
http://storymaps.esri.com/stories/2013/ports/

-0-

I had to scroll down to no. 35 before the UK appeared. What does that tell us?

Maybe port size will be a key indicator of abilty to export cheaply, and get rid of scrap/waste in a btter way - good for the port country.

But maybe it will mean the port country takes in a load of cheap imports = bad for the port country.

But that might mean the world economy grows = good for the port country

But maybe that will - etc

 

[JBR]

Do you think there is an optimum size for seaworthiness? - ie big enough to withstand most storms. That is if ports allowed it -there must eventually be a break even point

I think the simple answer is that the bigger the ship the more seaworthy, in the sense that it would be more able to withstand more powerful waves and storms.

I suppose that the only limiting factor would be the size (and depth) of harbours.

 

[jeds]

Nice graphical layout 50 largest ports...
http://storymaps.esri.com/stories/2013/ports/

-0-

I had to scroll down to no. 35 before the UK appeared. What does that tell us?

Why would you be surprised at that? Intuitively I would have thought countries with very large populations would come first followed by countries that physically link to large population areas. So, I would have said, China, Korea, India, USA, etc followed by European countries with a coastline. And looking down the list that pretty much covers it. The UK is a small population on a small island with very little available slave labour for making millions of tons of plastic crap. The only surprise to me is that I would have thought India and South America ought to have more large ports.

 

[bernardgreen]

The UK is a small population on a small island with very little available slave labour for making millions of tons of plastic crap.

The UK has a population that are buying millions of tons of plastic crap.

 

[JBR]

I agree that, relatively speaking, the UK does not have a large population (although undoubtedly growing!).

I should imagine that much of the goods imported from the far east comes to Rotterdam, as the main import harbour for the EU. Then, our share is carried across the channel on smaller vessels.

The majority of the largest ports are in the far east, presumably as that is where so many consumer products originate these days.

Whether or not we like it, China is now probably the largest exporter of products and, in my experience, it is not inevitably all tat. About a year ago, I bought a shower head online direct from a company based in China. It cost something like £7, postage included, and it has worked perfectly ever since.

 

[ladylola]

Having old ports may very well have a bearing on it too. Looking at the course of the Thames it's hard to believe London was one of the major ports of the world at one time. Equally in light of the recent grounding in the Solent our other ports don't seem to be suitable.

 

[Micilin]

Having old ports may very well have a bearing on it too. Looking at the course of the Thames it's hard to believe London was one of the major ports of the world at one time. Equally in light of the recent grounding in the Solent our other ports don't seem to be suitable.

Of course, it seems obvious now you say it. All the other infrastructure was built around a port that only needed to be deep enough for what was at sea at the time. So then , not as practical to build a new port or move the city.

 

[stillp]

You should have clicked on Felixstowe.

Surely it is just the newer ones (far east) which have been built bigger by design.

Felixstowe WAS no. 35!

Felixstowe is the far east!

 

[empip]

umm ! If a particular port is coping should they increase their capacity ?