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How efficient is shipping of major bulk cargoes (coal, ironore, and grain) to Japan?

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AKAKURA Yasuhiro, HeadPort Planning Division, Port and Harbor Department

Research Trends & Results(Keywords) Bulk cargo, Bulk carrier, Berth depth
1. Introduction
Bulk cargoes are the basic materials for industry
and food ingredients for daily life. They are loaded
directly into the holds of bulk carriers in unpackaged
form for shipping. The efficiency of such shipping isan essential element in raising the international
competitiveness of industry and ensuring stability inthe national livelihood. However, because bulk
cargo shipping is tramp shipping conducted forspecified shippers, information on it is extremely
limited. In this research, the author devised a methodfor determining shipping performance for major bulk
cargoes (coal, iron ore, and grain). The author thenanalyzed the circumstances of such performance inorder to contribute to the planning and proposal ofmeasures to improve shipping efficiency.
2. Method for determining the shipping
performance of major bulk cargoes
To begin, a list of bulk carriers that can ship therelevant items and worldwide loading ports wasprepared. Then, using the worldwide record of port
calls by bulk carriers, it was determined that a bulkcarrier was loaded with the relevant bulk cargo
whenever it visited a loading port.
From this, roughly 60 to 90% of all shipping could
be determined from contrasting various forms of data.
3. Results of comparison of major countries inNortheast Asia
The bulk cargo shipping conditions in majorcountries of Northeast Asia (Japan, China, SouthKorea, and Taiwan) were compared.
Table 1
presents average per-port discharge volumes that wereobtained by dividing loaded volumes when all carriers
are fully loaded by the number of discharge ports.
Here, if carriers are larger and the number of discharge
ports per shipment is smaller, then the average
discharge volume grows larger and shipping becomes
more efficient. As a result, in the case of coal andgrain, Japan had a low average discharge volume
because its carriers were small and it had many
discharge ports. Particularly in the case of grain,
there was a gap of at least roughly 20,000 tons incarrier capacity between Japan and the other majorcountries. In the case of iron ore, Japan had largecarriers, but it also had a large number of discharge
ports.

Table 1: Average per-port discharge volume (tons)
CountryJapan
ChinaSouth Korea
TaiwanCoal
49,09759,887
68,33069,603Iron ore
123,335
103,781
166,941
131,698

Grain
17,16847,72744,672
38,140

Table 2: Rates of insufficient berth depth for fully
loaded carriersCountryJapan
ChinaSouth Korea
Taiwan

Coal
39.3%
16.8%
15.5%

Iron ore
79.5%
19.1%
37.7%
-Grain
36.2%
85.4%
58.6%
57.0%

Note: Because China is a coal exporting country and data could beobtained for only one iron ore port in Taiwan, analyses were notconducted for these items.

The possibility that discharge ports lack capacity ispresumed based on the small size of carriers and large
number of discharge ports. Here, a comparison ofwater depth required to handle fully loaded carriers at
each port and the maximum berth depth of each port
was conducted.
Percentages of ports havinginsufficient berth depths that were obtained from theresults are shown in Table 2. In the cases of coal andiron ore, Japan had large berth depth insufficiency
rates compared to the other countries. Japan had asmaller insufficiency rate in the case of grain.
However, because the carriers were small, thisinsufficient rate exceeds 80%—the same level as
China—if carriers having the same size as China’s had
been used in shipping.
4. Conclusion
The author intends to continue his analyses in thehope that they will help raise the efficiency ofshipping to Japan.
[References]
Technical
NoteofNILIM
No.
525
http://www.nilim.go.jp/
Journal of the JSCE, Division D，Vol. 65，No. 3，pp.
336-347