Large Capacity Ships - Advantages and Disadvantages - Research Paper Example

Reflective Journal TASK 3 Report from Data Analysis We are presented with a list of data that gives information about the number of accidents that occur around the world on transportation through water bodies. These accidents are experienced by ships and the annual number of accidents that occur and the corresponding death or lives lost in the waters is also provided. The following are quantitative conclusions that can be obtained from data analysis. Lives Lost The data presented to us covers three years that are; 2004, 2006 and the year 2008. From the data, it is evident that S China, E. Indies has been encountered with the most casualties. These casualties can also be related to the number of incidence. It can be seen that the higher the number of accident incidence the more likely more lives are lost around the respective water bodies. Interpretation of Figures for Kiel and Suez Canals Around the Suez and Kiel canals the number on incidences of causalities are low. It can be seen that within the three years presented the highest number of casualties' experience are the loss of four lives. From the data, these canals are relatively safe to travel through than traveling in most open waters and natural waters as the Gulf and Indian Ocean. Being manmade facilitators and connectors of water travel the canals can be seen to experience less of the natural calamities, for example, experience of very high tidal waves and unbearable wind levels. This may be used to explain the minimum number of casualties encountered. Reasons for the Incidence Prevalence From the observation, it can be seen that areas around S China, E Indies, Japan, Korea and E Med/Black sea have been among the global leaders over the three years as the regions that experience the highest number of casualties. Around the regions of, Great Lakes and Cape Horn have been the trailers in casualty incidences. The main reason that can be seen to result in affect these regions and their numbers of casualty are the safety standards associated with the region. The areas with wild and unfriendly weather patterns that are associated with high tidal waves, heavy fog and heavy rainfall gradually can be termed to be more unsafe compared to regions with much friendlier weathers. On the other hand, the number of activities that occur in these areas is directly related to the number of accidents and casualties encountered. It can be concluded that the casualties in even the most unsafe region, in the world will be around zero if the area has no activities of being conducted through it. Thus, the busier the areas are the more likely casualties may occur in the regions. Incidences of the number of life lost are also influenced by the vessels that collapse in the waters. The bigger the vessels the more likely a higher number of people are being affected compared to the sinking of a smaller vessel. An example is the incidence that occurred in the red sea in the year 2006 was one, but the number of lives lost stood at 998. This is one incidence that yielded more deaths than the one projected that year around S China and E Indies which experienced 17 casualties. Happenings over the period between the data sets Between the data sets it can be seen that, in most areas like S China, E Indies, Japan, Korea and E Med/Black Sea, the number of incidence has been on a gradual increase. A possible explanation to these can be an increase in the number of shipping activities around these regions. Increase in shipping activities increases the possibility of encountering more incidences and casualties. Due to expansion and increase in the world trade and business activities, more shipping activities are on the rise due to increasing in the number of ships. Investments have also followed suit globally to increase the number of participants in the shipping business. Future Speculations Based on the Figures The trend in the number of shipping activities is on the rise. The numbers of incidents are likely to be elevated due to this. Although as time goes more superior technology and innovations to enhance security and are likely to be developed. The number of new participators in the shipping industry is likely also to be at an increased, so it can be estimated that if the number of incidents don't increase they will be stabilize with reference to the previous projections Task 4 Introduction A maritime conference took place in Southampton Solent University on Monday 17th of February. In this conference, six different presentations took place from six different speakers. Moreover Professor John Chudely, the Dean of Maritime and Technology Faculty has started the conference by making a small introduction. The first out of the six speakers that started the conference was Dr. Martin Stopford who currently is a non-executive president at Clarkson Research. Dr. Martin Stopford gave a presentation about an "Overview of the world's shipping today and tomorrow." Afterwards, Mr. Doug Barrow who is currently chief Executive of Maritime London gave a presentation about the Maritime centers yesterday, today and tomorrow, "propelling world trade." The third speaker was Mr. Michel Bowel the former Senior Director of UK P&I Club. Mr. Michael Bowel has given a presentation about claims and casualties. The fourth speaker, Mr. Philip Naylor who is the director of Maritime safety and Standards Marine Cost guard Agency has given a presentation about "the view of the regulator." The fifth speaker was captain Mark Bookham who currently is Director at "UK port and terminal Operations at developing terminal and inland services for WWL." The last speaker was Mr. Harald Hamley, the director of Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport gave a presentation about the "Overview of CILT, Logistics trends and Maritime matters" Main Body Dr. Martin Stopford who was the first speaker gave a presentation about "Overview of the world's shipping today and tomorrow." His presentation was about the economy in shipping industry. He spoke about cost freight in the history (1741-2013). Moreover, he presented a map showing the strongest shipping countries in the history. Afterwards, Dr. Martin Stopford has answered to many questions that students made. The second speaker, Mr. Doug Barrow continued the conference by giving a presentation about "Maritime centers yesterday, today and tomorrow, propelling world trade." His presentation was about the main Maritime Centre in London. The presentation continued by describing all the services that Maritime Centers are providing. Mr. Doug Barrow has also mentioned the ideas that global maritime centers have and where these centers may move in the future. When Mr. Doug Barrow finished his presentation Dr. Martin Stopford came on stage and both were answering on questions that students were asking. After the presentations by Mr. Martin Stopford and Doug Barrow the conference went on by Mr. Philip Naylor who was presenting "The view of the regulatory." This presentation was describing how the UK registration and Marine Coast Guard Agency works. Moreover, Mr. Philip Naylor described and talked about the soft and hard legislation. Afterwards, he showed several pictures. These pictures were showing some accidents in ports and then he was talking about each picture by describing each different case. The conference has continued with Captain Mark Bookham who made a presentation about “The strategic importance of developing terminal inland services for the WWL car trades.” Captain Bookham talked about several issues such as the as Terminal Volumes and more specifically Southampton’s terminal. He also spoke about ideas that could apply in Southampton and the cost of these ideas. The final presentation was given from Mr. Harald Hamley who spoke about the "Overview of the CILT, Logistics trends and maritime matters." Mr. Hamley spoke about logistics and how logistics can apply to many sectors and not only shipping. He mentioned as well the Herald's Learning Chain and said three laws. These laws were to be predictable, always to shorten your lead time and to take out steps and cost. Moreover, he spoke about some current issues for the environment and operational costs such as fuel costs. Conclusion To conclude, this maritime conference was an amazing experience for me and for my classmates. This conference helped me, and I believe most of the students, to make clear how some sectors in the maritime industry work. Moreover, I believe that it is not only the information that we got that matters, the fact that all the speakers were expertise and professionals from the shipping industry was great as they explained everything in a very clear way. TASK 5 LARGE CONTAINER SHIPS Introduction The shipping industry was among the first to facilitate the transformation of the world economy by creating access between continents. Ever since the invention of the first ship modifications followed fitting the steam engines to propel these devices. Further innovations were implemented and currently ships are equipped with petroleum engines that are able to propel the ships across water bodies faster and effectively (Wijnolst & Wergeland, 2009, pp. 375-380). The designs of these reliable engines have led to the need in modification that has led to the larger ships with higher capacity possibility. The world’s largest capacity ship dubbed “The Triple E” was going in service June last year; the possible capacity of this vessel is 18,000 20-foot containers (Kremer, 2013). With this, high capacities are effective in transportation since they carry more goods per trip. This is very effective especially if it concerns with the transportation of goods over long distances that can take more than a week before delivery. Although the large ships come with a lot of benefits for both their owners and clients these ships also have shortcomings that can counter. This section highlights the advantages and disadvantages that are present in reference to large container ships. Advantages of Large Container Ships Large containers have proved to be very beneficial in the move to improve the world economy due to their possible good carrying capacity. The large carrying capacities of these container ships provide advantages with regard to the economics of scale (Talley, 2013, p. section 12.3.2). That is, large capacity ships provide an avenue to carry a lot of goods for transportation at a cheaper price to client and lover expense to the owner. Thus, these ships play a very vital role in cost cutting, in the shipping business. Firms that are involved in shipping bulk equipment’s in large capacities are given the advantage of approaching just few or even just a single shipping company to make their delivery. This enables them to ship their products at once on one ship, this relates in making the shipping process more efficient (Gubbins, 1996, p. 29). Efficiency is important in any business as it makes a firm portray the image of reliability to its clients. Large container ships have provided ground for the use of mechanical machines in their operations. More sophisticated machines have been developed for the purpose of loading and off loading of these vessels. This has resulted in cutting of the labor force needed in the operation of this machine and also better working conditions are presented to the required laborers (Gubbins, Managing Transport Operations, 2004, p. 234). Cutting down on labor requirement has enabled the shipping companies further cut down on the operation cost from labor that would be incurred when dealing with multiple small capacity ships. The labor is effective in this case due to high working moral by laborers who are better treated (Gubbins, Managing Transport Operations, 2004). This further increases the efficiency in working with the large capacity ships. Disadvantages of large Container Ships As much as the operations of large containers pose many benefits to the economy by connecting different economies faster their follows some disadvantages that make them hectic to handle and control. Notably, the ability to be competitive in large container ship business requires one to provide services at lower prices. However, this strategy can be effective when the business is able to make lower losses than the competitors. This is a crucial strategy in surviving, in the business. In essence, the business of large container ship is risky and low profit making. Providing lower fee in the market is advanced to enable the business establish market share, edge competition, and secure enough volume in realizing sound capacity usage. However, the profitability of this business can be achieved when employing cost reduction strategies. Cost effectiveness is essential in increasing profitability; moreover, large ships have a huge capacity hence full capacity usage enhances cost effectiveness. In essence, increased vessel size helps in reducing bunker cost/slot. In addition, employing a small number of crew is critical; essentially, this is because modern ships require fewer personnel. This means that having new vessel is essential in The operation of loading of large containers is very complicated. A complex system with expensive equipment usually exists in the operations of these containers. Since the carrying capacities are very large as that of "The Triple E" ship with a carrying capacity of can 18,000 20-foot containers (Kremer, 2013). A complex system exists to determine the specific location of a specific container (Gubbins, Managing Transport Operations, 2004, p. 335). Due to the complexity of this operation the vessels have to spend more time at the dock for the purpose of loading and offloading. This causes the vessels to be portrayed as negatively in time efficiency. With high operation costs and requirements of these ships, they need to have sufficient load that can be able to pay for the operation of the ship. The large capacity ships have huge capacities and sometime it is difficult to find a single destination that requires this magnitude of goods on a single trip. Often it is seen that the large capacity ships lack goods that will meet their minimum requirement this they run to scarcity (Parthesius, 2010, p. 106). This gives the challenge for the existence of these ships as their single trip requirement is very high due to the limited returns. Failing to meet the capacity often sees clients with urgent deliveries seek other alternative routes to deliver their goods Conclusion It is evident that large capacity ships have played a very important role in boosting the global economy. Large ships have facilitated the transportation of imports and exports to and from countries and, as a result it has strengthened the relationship between trading countries. Large capacity ships have also seen the development in many nations as they had to expand their ports for the purpose to accommodate these ships. These ships have also contributed to security and safety of goods at sea since they are unable to be overturned by tidal waves. However, in cases where the ship might sink, there are very big losses that are experience. Since the ships have large capacities they carry more and thus the total goods that can be lost in the accident incidences is very high. This will impact negatively to the economy and the environment due to pollution of waters. However since many disadvantages of large capacity ships are unprecedented and regarded to as accidents, large ships have more advantage contributions than disadvantages. LIST OF REFERENCES Gubbins, E. J. (1996). The Shipping Industry: The Technology and Economics of Specialisation. Amsterdam: Gordon and Breach Science Publishers. Gubbins, E. J. (2004). Managing Transport Operations. London: Kogan Page Limited. Kremer, W. (2013, February 19). News Magazine. Retrieved May 05, 2014, from BBC news : http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21432226 Parthesius, R. (2010). Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters: The Development of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) Shipping Network In Asia 1595-1660. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. Talley, W. K. (2013). The Blackwell Companion to Maritime Economics. Oxford: Black Well Publishing Ltd. Wijnolst, N., & Wergeland, T. (2009). Shipping Innovation. Amsterdam: IOS Press BV. Read More