‫ە‬A Case of Utilizing Results

Effects of Cutting Transport Costs byEnlarging Bulk Carriers㻌
—Promoting International Strategic Bulk PortPolicies—㻌
AKAKURA Yasuhiro, HeadPort Planning Division, Part and Harbor Department(Keywords) Bulk carrier, iron ore, coal, grains, international strategic bulk port 
Berths䝞䞊䝇ᩘ㻝㻜㻜㻑㻼㻹㼄㻺㻼㼄

㻢㻣㻡㻑㻠

㻡㻜㻑

Ship percentage

Numberof Berths
䝞䞊䝇ᩘ㻤

⯪⯧๭ྜ

㻞㻡㻑

㻞
Existing᪤Ꮡ
Newly built᪂㐀㻜㻑㻝㻟㻝㻠㻝㻡
㻝㻢Draught(m)ႚỈ䠄㼙䠅Figure 1. Draught of Steam Coal Berths in Japan andCoal Carriers㻜㻟㻜㻚㻜Transport cost per MT (USD/MT)

㻹㼀ᙜ䛯䜚㍺㏦䝁䝇䝖䠄㼁㻿㻰㻛㻹㼀䠅
1. Enlarging bulk carriers
Strong demand for resources by China and India
and the expanded Panama Canal scheduled to begin
service in 2014 are spurring the enlargement of bulk
carriers which transport coal, iron ore, grains, etc.
Many ultra large bulk carriers capable of transportingfrom 300,000 to 400,000 tons of iron ore or 90,000 to
120,000 tons of grain or steam coal to power thermal
electric generation plants are scheduled to go intoservice. Many of the facilities constructed to handle bulk
cargoes in Japan’s ports were constructed during theperiod of high speed growth so that because ofshallow depth etc., their capacity is now inadequate.
For example, comparisons of the allowed draught ofberths for ships handling steam coal in Japan and thefully loaded draught of coal carriers (PMX: Panamax(70,000 to 80,000 tons), and NPX (New Panamax(90,000 to 120,000 tons)) are shown in Figure 1,showing clearly that the depth at these berths isinsufficient. Korea and Taiwan are transporting steamcoal by even larger Capesize (170,000 to 180,000tons) ships, showing that international gaps intransport efficiency are now extremely wide.
2. Clarifying and analyzing the transport cost
reduction effects
In order to quantify the cost reduction effects ofusing ultra large bulk carriers which will enter service
in the future, a method of calculating transport costs
based on ship costs, fuel costs, and port costs incurredrunning ships has been established. Figure 2 shows theresults of the applying this method to calculate theeffects of using ultra large bulk carriers to transportcoal. The figure shows the results of the calculation
for three cases: Case 0: ships are simply enlarged,
Case 1: a new open yard is required in order toincrease the quantity of cargo transported each time,and Case 2: feeder transport is necessary because thewater depth in the berth in the second port isinsufficient. But in all three cases, transport costs fallfrom the present shipping cost (PMX) as a result of theenlargement of ships (NPX/CPS: Casesize). 㻞㻡㻚㻜㻝㻝㻝㻞㻯㼍㼟㼑㻌㻜㻯㼍㼟㼑㻌㻝㻯㼍㼟㼑㻌㻞

Simpleenlargement༢⣧኱ᆺ໬

Rent
an open yard㔝✚ሙ೉ୖFeeder஧ transport┠䜈tosecond port஧ḟ㍺㏦㻞㻜㻚㻜㻝㻡㻚㻜㻝㻜㻚㻜㻡㻚㻜㻜㻚㻜㻼㻹㼄 㻺㻼㼄 㻯㻼㻿 㻺㻼㼄 㻯㻼㻿 㻺㻼㼄 㻯㻼㻿Figure 2. Example of the Results of Cost Calculation
by Enlarging Coal Carriers3. Application of results
The Ports and Harbours Bureau of the Ministry ofLand, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism hasformed the International Strategic Bulk Port Study
Committee which is conducting deliberations in orderto strengthen the international competitiveness of ports
which handle bulk cargoes through selection andconcentration of development. The results of thisresearch have been prepared as study documents to beused by the committee for its deliberations.
[Source] Technical Note of the National Institute for Land andInfrastructure Management, No. 560
Journal of the Japan Society of Civil Engineers: Vol.
66, No. 3, pp. 369-382 ‫ە‬A Case of Utilizing Results