Giants of the Sea - Containerships for more than 8.000 containers (Documentary, 2003)

the nederloid asia on the outer elbe the container ship has a carrying capacity of 3600 teu one teu is a standard container with a length of 20 feet or 6 meters this ship can carry 3600 such

containers

and is therefore one of Smaller ships trading over the Internet and, in particular, China's economic development have led to enormous growth rates. Container shipping is booming. Efforts are being made to reduce the costs of transporting each container using increasingly larger ships. Can the

giants

of the future with their greater depth continue to make stops in Germany? Will the ports cope with the logistical requirements?

What technical problems arise when increasingly larger ships are built and what changes for the crew. If you look at the past, we had ships that carried the amount of cargo that we now use for fuel. Only the number of people has decreased before we sailed on boats with 30 or 40 people and now we sell boats with 20 people and if you see this boat and a boat of 8,000 to the EU, it is also 20 people, great work. It is maintenance in the engine room and as the engines get older and do not have sealing, there is

more

maintenance,

more

studies to do.

The other thing is that with better technical innovations, maintenance can be reduced and also the size of the container ships of the future. At 3,600 TEU, the Ned Lloyd Asia looks small compared to the 8,000 TEU behemoths currently being built. Ships measuring thirteen thousand TEU are currently expected and, within the framework of a Dutch study, an eighteen thousand TEU vessel with a draft of twenty-one meters is already being designed. Will ships of this gigantic size be built in the future? The Hamburg container port is located directly opposite the shipping company Blue Star. Star is a 100 percent subsidiary of P and O Ned Lloyd. leader on the Europe Asia route, the construction of four of the largest container ships with 8,450 TEU each is currently planned.

The Japanese shipyard carrying out the project has proposed a basic design. Changes to the equipment are discussed with the shipping company that placed the order. Of course, the desired changes repeatedly lead to discussions with the shipyard about the work required and costs. The close cooperation between the shipping company and the shipyard continues throughout the construction period. Giants are built on site. japanese ihi marine united shipyard in kure not far from hiroshima there is no shipyard in germany that can build ships of this size the blue star shipping company has a separate office in the shipyard for construction supervision from here its staff supports and supervises the construction of the ships and clarifying doubts that arise in direct contact with Hamburg, even the construction of extremely large container ships begins with the delivery of steel plates by plane.

In total, almost 40,000 tons of steel are loaded into each ship. Molded parts are cut from the steel plates with the help of computer-controlled flame cutters and then, if necessary, bent according to the construction drawings on the assembly line. Individually numbered steel plates are initially converted into small modules which are then welded together to form increasingly larger units. Only a few workers supervise the small welding. The robots that form part of the more than 800 kilometers of welded joints The enormous preconceived blocks from approximately 100,000 pieces of steel cannot be created without carefully thought out logistical planning The colossal

giants

are transported to the next production station by transport vehicles special transport The shipyard is a workplace susceptible to accidents.

Signs everywhere remind workers of safety precautions at work to protect the steel blocks from rusting. They are carefully ground and subsequently sprayed with a primer. This is the first of a total of five coats of paint. The necessary pipe. and in the individual blocks the power lines are already installed that will then run through the entire ship. Around 40 kilometers of pipes and 300 kilometers of electrical cables fit into each ship. When the colossal steel elements are finally assembled in the dry dock, the connections must fit. precisely vanna enning also has his office at the shipyard on site he together with his small team represents garmanisha lloyd or as he says gl this is a classification and certification society that is comparable to lloyd's shipping record at the enning shipyard verifies aspects that are important for safety during the further operation of the ship we will choose quality changers we examine the quality of the ship on the basis of approved drawings and also the safety equipment on board in addition the welders are checked and, of course, they must take the so-called welders exam, then we verify the suppliers, we carry out individual acceptance tests in these companies, in addition, we also work for the flag states, in this case it is the country of Liberia, we verify all safety equipment in accordance with the regulations of Liberia, sea trials with what is currently the largest container ship in the world, about 100 workers and technicians come on board for the so-called sea trials, to check whether the ship is operational and exactly the Czech equipment or technical.

The ship leaves the shipyard for the first time when it is towed. the bay by tuck boats thank you very much so far for all the cooperation the customer representatives are impressed the shipyard managers and germanischer lloyd staff meet to discuss the test program for the next few days 10 o'clock While the customer wants a fast and impeccable boat, the shipyard wants as little touch-up work as possible. Germanischer Lloyd, in turn, only accepts a safe ship with a length of 335 meters. The ship is longer than the Eiffel Tower in Paris and has a width of almost 43 meters.

The sea tests are carried out without load to measure the maximum speed, on the other hand, the value is calculated with full load while the tugs are have fired yes, we have now left the shipyard grounds and the engine has just been started for the first time for sea testing, we are now slowly gaining speed, which is also indicated by the fact that black smoke occasionally comes out of the chimney, as now, the smoke becomes more constant after a while, when the ship has accelerated. a little more speed a shaft of about 40 meters transmits the power of the engine to the propeller the 93,000 hp common rail diesel engine with 12 cylinders is so accelerated that it generates the equivalent of about 63,000 kilowatts in this innovative engine the injection of fuel is electronically controlled the engine is economical, environmentally friendly and can run extremely slowly a big advantage when maneuvering in port while the engine is running in the shipyard the technicians check the engine control system together with the customer's technicians A series of thought messages are accumulated and analyzed to eliminate the causes.

The main office of Germanischer Lloyd is not far from the port of Hamburg. More than half of the new container ships built are classified by this company. Jan Olaf Porpst works in the department of Research and development advises clients on the design of container ships and even a larger ship, with thirteen thousand TEU, is being designed here. A simulation program calculates how the 380-meter-long ship would behave in rough seas. What deformations. What stresses occur in terms of propeller and engine size. It is feasible, therefore, to install two smaller engines, each with its own propeller, side by side.

Traditionally, the deckhouse is placed above the engine at the stern. Now we have simply moved the deckhouse forward to dock the hull again when the boat is in a swell, the two sides of the boat have different deformation characteristics and at some point this difference becomes too big as the boat becomes more and more long, so we tried to build some kind of closed section on the boat. This is the deckhouse, which we place exactly between the side walls, as a result an empty space is created under the deckhouse where we cannot store any

containers

, so we place the fuel here.

This has the advantage that we also meet an ecological demand: there is no fuel at all in the outer shell, i.e. if a collision with the ship were to occur, no fuel would flow into the sea as in Smith. In these buildings, people are less concerned about technical feasibility than financial viability. mpc capital assumes the financing of the four container giants built. In Japan, with an investment volume of 320 million dollars, the so-called closed-end funds play an important role in financing: private investors acquire shares and thus have an interest in the profits obtained from the ships, as if they were An individual. buy a boat of this type in these closed funds the financing is divided into a capital contribution and a part of the borrowed capital the capital contribution is paid by investors while the borrowed capital is provided by the banks these boats ordered in

2003

cost around 80 million dollars Of these 80 million, about 60 million are financed in the long term by banks.

The same principle also applies here that today not only one bank bears the risk, but the financing risk is shared by a group of banks and, as a rule, financing is provided through international consortium turning maneuvers. between the Japanese islands the ship is tested to see how the steering system responds on the bridge the radar system is demonstrated to the client's technicians the tests on the various equipment on board are carried out 24 hours a day each one takes care of his section and take a break when he has time when night falls, the entire lighting system is checked and then the anchors are tested, so this is Korea 3 m on the host speedometer 9.0 9 meters per minute in the case, Okay, fast casting and hauling the powerful anchors should be tried.

Proper operation of anchoring equipment is extremely important for safety. The worker carefully releases the brake. The deadlift pulls the anchor deep into the water to ensure the speed is not too high. The brake must be applied repeatedly. Finally, the anchor is hoisted at this location. It should be possible within a certain time for the boat to quickly become maneuverable again everything is fine so far but something unpredictable happens with the second anchor the worker releases the brake too much because the anchor does not respond at first once again everything went well true , if the mighty chain had run at full speed, it would have been torn from the anchorage and thrown across the deck.

We also have now that we first check all the anchor equipment to see if it works correctly, the brakes were tested and just now the transport at the speed of the chains we have to reach a speed of nine meters per minute and in fact reach 10.5 meters for us this test is already over and everything is fine in this sense I was surviving the weather has changed it is raining the boat is moving well and is slowly approaching its maximum speed on the bridge, slight vibrations are felt, although the engine has accelerated , the giant will later reach a loaded cruising speed of 24 to 26 knots, i.e. almost 50 kilometers per hour, the vibrations are also precisely measured and examined. 40 sensors are installed in different places in the deckhouse.

The new common-rail diesel engine demonstrates its effectiveness since, fortunately, the measured vibrations are minimal. After the long and intensive operation, the engine stopped and now must be meticulously inspected by several men. Climbing inside the still very hot and oily engine, the enormous cylinder liners are first examined from below for damage, then the engine is opened further so that the technicians can take a closer look at the gigantic connecting rods in accordance with international laws, In the future all ships will have to transmit identification data and store data on their own movements and those of other ships for 24 hours, this will facilitate the reconstruction of accidents at sea.

Each cross represents a ship for which more detailed specifications may be obtained in the future. The shipping company will also be able to recover the detailed data on fast charging and much more online, this means that they will always have an accurate view of the entire fleet after an accident, this capsule could be recovered and then restore and play this data as a movie and analyze what was the cause comparable to the black box In the case of an airplane, the black box will later be designed as a child who floats when the ship sinks and sends a radio signal.

The ship has passed its sea trials. Some small improvements need to be made later, plus everyone involved is satisfied. The container giant is towed to the dry dock for afinal inspection of the outer shell. Meanwhile, representatives of the various groups on the ship draw up a report listing all the work that still needs to be done. The ship maneuvers precisely in the strait. The dock is closed and workers check the ship's position again before draining the water. The hull and primer coat of the boat are now examined. Paint must be applied to a total area of ​​one thousand square meters or the equivalent of seventy football fields.

During the sea trials, the ship sailed with its own anchor chain. In this place, we were mainly waiting for paint. There is still more to do. This is quite a bit. normal for a newly built ship in this case it means a little more work because the shipyard has encountered delays due to the large number of hurricanes that have hit Japan in recent weeks and months and as a result of the rains and strong winds that have work in the shipyard is impossible, the so-called antifouling coatings of the hull are gradually decomposed by water over the years and prevent algae and muscles from adhering to the boat in the water these organisms grow on this surface without coating after a few days The original coatings were toxic and released substantial amounts of zinc into the water, but they are now very effective and environmentally friendly coatings are used in boat design.

Particular attention is paid to the propeller to avoid so-called cavitation damage during normal operation. The propeller can be damaged to the point of total loss due to this process. A model in the Hamburg shipbuilding. test institute is in a closed water tank the water is constantly pumped back to the model through this conduit and rotates the propeller due to the different pressure conditions in the propeller the gas bubbles can evaporate and at the same time start propeller material this test aims to make cavitation symptoms visible the shape of the propeller and hull determines the flow of water and therefore to what extent cavitation occurs to allow more precise observation the ambient light and a strobe lamp illuminate the propeller once a week revolution this makes it appear as if the propeller is spinning slowly a swarm of bubbles can be seen on the propeller blades experts quickly agree that the propeller makes a good impression There is a discussion about whether the propeller can be optimized by slight changes to the shape chambers installed in the water tank allow another perspective, but the overall positive evaluation is also confirmed here.

However, specialists decide to build windows in the stern of the actual ship to be able to observe the propeller during operation and this is what causes the cavitation that causes damage. It looks like here we have an example where things look pretty good in the test. Here we have another example of a large ship that has cavitation damage to the propeller. You can see how fine cloud-like particles of material break off here and break off in strips. These are all indications of progressive cavitation damage. The nedloid asia approaches the port of Hamburg. Currently, ships with a maximum draft of up to 12.5 meters can navigate the bend regardless of course, with the support of the tidal wave or with less load.

Ships can also arrive at the container port. It is planned to deepen the Elbe River by one meter more, since in the future ships will be wider than deeper. New measures will not be necessary for a long time, in the EU's view. The port authority unloaded the containers from an 8,450 TEU ship and would fill a train more than 50 kilometers long. If ports are faced with new needs, shipping companies naturally expect that in two days we will also be able to handle and dispatch their large 12,000 TEU ships. However, this means that we have to be fifty percent faster on the key walls and not just on the key walls, since the real bottleneck in container terminals in Europe today is the container warehouse.

The question of whether larger ships are profitable depends on how they are The problem is that the company operating the port of Hamburg is confident that the logistical challenges will be overcome, especially since its port is already the largest and most modern in Germany. Furthermore, it is assumed that the growth in ship size will soon come to an end and the next step will probably be 10,000 that can still be handled with the current engines and propellers, but which will be followed by a somewhat larger jump to a ship of 14,000 TEU. There will definitely not be an 18,000 TEU ship in the next 10 years.

How will development continue? It is the subject of speculation, but one thing is clear: the nedloid manet, the second ship in the 8450 TEU series will only temporarily be one of the largest container ships in the world.