14 ms·

The author is from France. Is terminal delivery as cheap in Europe?

by erispoe 11y ago

foobarian 11y ago
Besides, 10 days by sea?
- bzbarsky 11y ago
  10 days is a bit short indeed, but... Modern container ships travel at about 25 knots (unless they're doing fuel-saving slow cruise at 12 knots). http://www.sea-distances.org/ http://www.sea-distances.org/ tells me that a 25-knot ship going from Hong Kong to Marseilles via the Suez Canal takes 13 days 7 hours to get there. In practice, of course, there's loading and unloading on both ends (figure 2 days) and you're not traveling through the Suez at 25 knots; the traffic there goes at 8 knots according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Canal#Navigation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Canal#Navigation. That said, the Suez transit takes 11-16 hours according to that link, so maybe add half a day to the estimate. The upshot is that a 16-18 day travel time is not unreasonable there. I was a bit surprised it's that short, but being able to maintain 25 knots around the clock eats up distance faster than one expects. Of course if you go from Shanghai instead of Hong Kong, you need to add a day and a half or so. And if you go to Brest instead of Marseilles, add two more days.
  - bkor 11y ago
    I urge you to just lookup the schedules using something like http://www.shipmentlink.com/ http://www.shipmentlink.com/ or http://www.linescape.com/ http://www.linescape.com/. For one, 25 knots is a ridiculously high speed. At the same time, 12 knots is way too low. Any shipping line will sail a bit quicker on the main haul (=direction where most full containers go to). So China->Europe is usually quicker than the other way around. But the huge mistake you're making is that a container vessel will make additional stops and it does not connect every possible port to every other possible port. If you have uncommon combinations, the container will usually be moved from one vessel to another. This adds additional time (days). Hong Kong -> Fos Sur Mer is like 31+ days.
    - bzbarsky 11y ago
      Thank you for the links to places with actual schedules! Always the difference between theory and practice.... ;)
itaysk 11y ago
Same here in Israel.. Also a mystery for me

The author is from France. Is terminal delivery as cheap in Europe?

by erispoe 11y ago

The author is from France. Is terminal delivery as cheap in Europe?

foobarian 11y ago

Besides, 10 days by sea?

bzbarsky 11y ago
10 days is a bit short indeed, but... Modern container ships travel at about 25 knots (unless they're doing fuel-saving slow cruise at 12 knots). http://www.sea-distances.org/ http://www.sea-distances.org/ tells me that a 25-knot ship going from Hong Kong to Marseilles via the Suez Canal takes 13 days 7 hours to get there. In practice, of course, there's loading and unloading on both ends (figure 2 days) and you're not traveling through the Suez at 25 knots; the traffic there goes at 8 knots according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Canal#Navigation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Canal#Navigation. That said, the Suez transit takes 11-16 hours according to that link, so maybe add half a day to the estimate. The upshot is that a 16-18 day travel time is not unreasonable there. I was a bit surprised it's that short, but being able to maintain 25 knots around the clock eats up distance faster than one expects. Of course if you go from Shanghai instead of Hong Kong, you need to add a day and a half or so. And if you go to Brest instead of Marseilles, add two more days.
- bkor 11y ago
  I urge you to just lookup the schedules using something like http://www.shipmentlink.com/ http://www.shipmentlink.com/ or http://www.linescape.com/ http://www.linescape.com/. For one, 25 knots is a ridiculously high speed. At the same time, 12 knots is way too low. Any shipping line will sail a bit quicker on the main haul (=direction where most full containers go to). So China->Europe is usually quicker than the other way around. But the huge mistake you're making is that a container vessel will make additional stops and it does not connect every possible port to every other possible port. If you have uncommon combinations, the container will usually be moved from one vessel to another. This adds additional time (days). Hong Kong -> Fos Sur Mer is like 31+ days.
  - bzbarsky 11y ago
    Thank you for the links to places with actual schedules! Always the difference between theory and practice.... ;)

itaysk 11y ago

Same here in Israel.. Also a mystery for me