Wouldn’t fancy trying to do the lashings on that monster but I’d like to sail on it.
I wonder how many here will register the benefits of “slow steaming”? 
Interesting article, particularly regarding the knock on effects of building them this big.
looks like they are expecting a boom in the box game which is good news but just hang on here lads carryfast will b along any mo to let us know the full ins n outs of it 
More train movements too…
Buggers off for a brew before the tin foil hatted Leatherhead overlander starts 
Have read the book mentioned - The Box - very interesting and shows how uk missed out and let europe get ahead in ports. The american who started it started with a trucking company in US and had hoped to have these huge ships years ago.
12-15 knots? you’d almost be holding up river crusiers.
Pointless. The container game is on its arse
I suspect it means that more containers will be sent overland form the far east by rail to places like Poland where they will be dispersed to their final European destinations by road, sea and rail, and those which are still shipped by sea (for reasons of cost) will be sent very slowly on these huge vessels.
This would mean huge peaks and troughs in container traffic. Container hauliers will be everyone’s mate when the ship docks, and once the back-log is cleared there will be no work until the next one arrives.
I wonder if empty rail container wagons will be piggy-backed back East on shorter trains, while more empty boxes will be sent back on these ships. The boxes are virtually all built in China anyway.
Maersk Line have ordered 10 of them with an option for another 20 at a cost of 190 million US dollars each 
GasGas:
I suspect it means that more containers will be sent overland form the far east by rail to places like Poland where they will be dispersed to their final European destinations by road, sea and rail, and those which are still shipped by sea (for reasons of cost) will be sent very slowly on these huge vessels.
This would mean huge peaks and troughs in container traffic. Container hauliers will be everyone’s mate when the ship docks, and once the back-log is cleared there will be no work until the next one arrives.
I wonder if empty rail container wagons will be piggy-backed back East on shorter trains, while more empty boxes will be sent back on these ships. The boxes are virtually all built in China anyway.
There is a certain logic to your scenario, but if you have a steady flow off slow moving vessels, why would there be any bigger peaks and troughs than at the moment. If the vessels are arriving at regular intervals, and the port and hauliers plan traffic,(its not as if they dont know when a vwssel is going to arrive and whats on it well in advance (sneaking along the english channel isnt an option)) there’s no reason why it wont work any different too now.
though I’m still waiting for a trough 
well, they are still talking about turning the things around in 24 hours. I know they can stack the boxes fairly high, but I’d have thought that they’d have to start moving them out of the dock before they could find room for the last ones on the ship.
So, probably more peaks and troughs, particularly if high winds stopped the ship docking, or prevented unloading for a while, and there was another ship getting closer.
The sheer size of the things is staggering!
DrivingMissDaisy:
I wonder how many here will register the benefits of “slow steaming”?Interesting article, particularly regarding the knock on effects of building them this big.
It’s estimated that a large box ship uses 380 tons of fuel a day and dropping the speed from 24 to 12 knots reduced fuel usage by 80%’ down by 304 tons
Interesting that the clipper vessels of old travelled faster at 16 knots, maybe today’s box ships need sails?
We have the technology
cookeassociates.com/sports/history.php
killed off on commercial shipping by falling oil prices back in the day…but oil prices are up again…
If i remember rightly ( i think i read it somewhere ) the American that started it all rolling was the chap who started Sea Land and he began with old liberty ships ex 2nd world war he made the containers to fit the ships thats why Sea Land had 35ft containers apparently they just fitted the ships dimentions with the minimum of space lost. Also a manager at one of the container companies once told me ( about 8 yrs ago ) that their wasnt enough space taking every port in the world into consideration for every container to be discharged off every ship on to the floor ! wether it was a wind up i dont know but there must be one he… of a lot out their.
The guy who started it all was a trucker called Malcolm McLean
Cheers for that stringy , knew id read it somewhere , some bloke to have that vision.
A bit off the original topic but if you’re interested in containerisation look out for an old documentary called “The Box that Changed Britain (Story of Containers)”, it’s the story of how this country eventually came to have containers arriving at the docks.
Most of you have probably seen it but if you haven’t it’s worth watching in my opinion.
eddie snax:
GasGas:
I suspect it means that more containers will be sent overland form the far east by rail to places like Poland where they will be dispersed to their final European destinations by road, sea and rail, and those which are still shipped by sea (for reasons of cost) will be sent very slowly on these huge vessels.
This would mean huge peaks and troughs in container traffic. Container hauliers will be everyone’s mate when the ship docks, and once the back-log is cleared there will be no work until the next one arrives.
I wonder if empty rail container wagons will be piggy-backed back East on shorter trains, while more empty boxes will be sent back on these ships. The boxes are virtually all built in China anyway.There is a certain logic to your scenario, but if you have a steady flow off slow moving vessels, why would there be any bigger peaks and troughs than at the moment. If the vessels are arriving at regular intervals, and the port and hauliers plan traffic,(its not as if they dont know when a vwssel is going to arrive and whats on it well in advance (sneaking along the english channel isnt an option)) there’s no reason why it wont work any different too now.
though I’m still waiting for a trough
You’ll get a trough when them big things that they order to be made in the boom years, eventually get here and there’s no room for all the boxes!!! Well thats assuming they fill them out in the first place Maybe they’ll sit them around waiting for the existing hauliers to get through the stack on the dock, maybe they’ll get more hauliers to move them off pronto, or put more trains on ? Exciting times !
GasGas:
I suspect it means that more containers will be sent overland form the far east by rail to places like Poland where they will be dispersed to their final European destinations by road, sea and rail, and those which are still shipped by sea (for reasons of cost) will be sent very slowly on these huge vessels.
This would mean huge peaks and troughs in container traffic. Container hauliers will be everyone’s mate when the ship docks, and once the back-log is cleared there will be no work until the next one arrives.
I wonder if empty rail container wagons will be piggy-backed back East on shorter trains, while more empty boxes will be sent back on these ships. The boxes are virtually all built in China anyway.
I think the UK has a massive advantage over Poland in that we are an island nation and not landlocked on 3 sides. The new routes of the North East passage cut out 7400km as opposed to the Suez Route. The bigger ships will be able to go slower and arrive sooner.