Who's responsible for box weights? Shippers, truckers, carriers disagree

Heavier container weights will work on 18,000-TEUers, says Lloyds Register
CONTAINER stacking weights can be modified to allow the carriage of more cargo, and as much as 10 per cent weight could be added to the cargo transported aboard an 18,000-TEU ship, says Lloyd's Register marine director Tom Boardley.

"The results come from looking hard at ship efficiency - and how we optimise designs. Examining the forces involved in container stacks is throwing up interesting and innovative results," said Mr Boardley in a report in New York's Marine Link.

"These results indicate clearly that we will be able to allow much higher cargo weights and enable more operational flexibility - and to do this in safety. The potential in cargo increase is considerable," he said.

But safety must be upheId. "We are helping the owners reduce risks and further reduce uncertainties in container stowage planning and operations. We have been carrying out a broad range of investigations and re-formulation of calculations into operational ship accelerations and ship motions.

"This is not just mathematics - real containers have been load-tested at full scale and ships have been instrumented; we have been modelling the impact of our the larger 16- to 18,000-TEU new insights for designs now emerging and, looking to possibilities in future, for next generation 22,000 + TEU ships," Mr Boardley said.

"It's about being able to load more containers that are carrying cargo and being able to have more options as to where to load which can help speed up cargo operations, reducing time in port, energy used and driving increasing asset efficiency ashore and afloat. The larger the ship, the bigger the benefit as the efficiencies are scalable," he said.

The next steps towards final confirmation and the ability to offer new rules will go for validation by the Lloyd's Register Technical Committee in November.

"There is still more work to be done. But we will be changing our rules and hope to bring this into practice soon," Mr Boardley said.