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Oil is much less of a factor in shipping costs than people realise. These container ships are incredible, in terms of what they can carry versus the cost of the
by neffy 10y ago
Oil is much less of a factor in shipping costs than people realise. These container ships are incredible, in terms of what they can carry versus the cost of the fuel.
- astrodust 10y agoThe amount of fuel these ships burn is absolutely nuts, as much as 200-300 tons per day, approximately 65,000 to 95,000 gallons of the stuff, but the size of the ships is even more stupidly crazy, upwards of 150,000 tons, that they're actually quite efficient when you do the math. It probably takes 5,000 trucks to carry the containers stacked on one of the larger cargo ships and they burn way more than 19 gallons of fuel per day.
- neffy 10y agoExactly. I found an analysis I wrote a couple of years ago on it. For something like bananas, which are relatively expensive because they require refrigerated shipping, the total fuel cost for the sea part worked out at about 0.09 cents/lb. And as you say, the cost of road shipping dwarfs that.
- dredmorbius 10y agoShipping has always, and by always, I don't mean "since 1932", but since prehistory, been vastly cheaper than overland freight. The old time differential was about 20:1. Today, marine freight can move a ton nearly 1,000 miles on a gallon of fuel. Rail maxes at about 400 ton miles/gallon, trucking is about 50 tm/g. Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations has a telling comparison of ship vs wagon travel from Edinburgh to London in the 1770s. Smart money was in boats.