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AFTER
more than 50 years of containerisation,
the containership today is responsible for
the transportation of more than 90 per cent
of world trade, taking over the role previously
played by general cargo ships, or break-bulk
carriers.
Yet
despite the advances that have come as a
result of containerisation there is still
a substantial break-bulk sector today. Simply
put, not all cargo can fit into a 20 or
40 foot container, as in the case of project
shipments and other out-of-gauge cargo.
The
sector continues to flourish in parts of
the world that are not equipped with the
necessary technology to handle containerships
and other specialised vessels like tankers.
Break-bulk
shipping is said to be a notoriously non-transparent
sector when compared with the container
shipping industry, but this is something
that Netherlands-based maritime consultancy
group Dynamar BV has attempted to reverse,
at least to some degree.
In
its published report entitled Breakbulk
III - Operators, Fleets and Markets, which
flings open the doors on this sector of
the shipping industry, the group takes an
in-depth look at this mysterious sector,
providing key insight on the facts and figures,
including who the leading players are in
the market, what they are operating with
and what the general outlook for break-bulk
shipping is going forward.
We
are all too well aware of the painful time
that container shipping lines have had in
recent years, but break-bulk carriers have
certainly had their fair share of tough
times as well. Like the container
shipping lines, break-bulk carriers enjoyed
a very profitable period of time, followed
by a rush on newbuilding orders, which resulted
in significant overcapacity and financial
losses.
Dynamar
reports that the break-bulk market experienced
something of a "heyday" between
2007 and 2008, just prior to the global
financial crisis.
This
heyday led break-bulk carriers to order
vessel en masse. Thanks to two very solid
years these companies ordered a total of
210 multipurpose vessels during this time.
A further seven vessels were added to the
order in 2009, and then the market collapsed.
While
carriers did manage to cancel some orders,
the vast majority of these vessels did arrive
in the market. In fact Dynamar reports that
there were a total of 400 ships added to
the global fleet between 2010 and 2012.
In
early 2010 the break-bulk vessel orderbook
stood at 34 per cent of the existing fleet.
As we now know, shipping demand has been
historically weak from 2009 through to today.
The
only exception to this was the brief, yet
strong rebound in trade volumes in the first
half of 2010. However, this was related
more to the container shipping sector.
Nevertheless,
break-bulk carriers apparently learned their
lesson and eased up on ordering new tonnage
- something not as apparent in the container
sector.
Today
the break-bulk vessel orderbook is down
to just 10 per cent of the existing fleet.
Even
more encouraging is the fact that approximately
20 per cent of today's non-cellular general
cargo ship fleet is comprised of ships aged
more than 25 years, according to the Dynamar
report.
This
means that there is significant scrapping
potential for the industry going forward,
which could also help drastically reduce
any supply surplus that exists today. Dynamar
estimates that we can expect to see the
current fleet contract by four million tons
deadweight.
And
the potentially positive news does not stop
there, the report notes. "It should
once again be emphasised that ships built
during the last five years in particular
are much more productive and fuel efficient
than the vessels they replace. Combined,
all operators discussed in Dynamar's new
Breakbulk III report deploy some 400 vessels
built in 2008 or thereafter," it said.
Another
point of interest highlighted in the report
is the improved efficiency in the fleet's
onboard cranes.
As
noted earlier, break-bulk ships typically
call at ports that do not have the necessary
onshore equipment to handle modern container
vessels that have no onboard equipment to
lift cargoes. As such, onboard crane productivity
is crucial for these general cargo ships.
"In
this respect the 25 largest operators deploy
over 500 ships with heavy lift capabilities
of over 100 tons, of which nearly 160 can
hoist loads of more than 500 tons. They
have another 30 ships on order with lifting
capacities of between 500 and a herculean
3,000 tons," the report said.
As
for the outlook going forward, Dynamar says
the picture is still not very clear, but
it does note that this is partly because
there is no one single break-bulk market.
It is a shipping sector made up of several
niches, all of which "behave differently",
each with their own dynamics and cycles.
This
in itself can be seen as a positive, as
the risk is spread. If general cargoes are
not in demand, perhaps heavy lift project
shipments are.
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