4 ms·

Also, slowing down with a crew means continuing to pay them for the extra days. Slowing down w/out one should not incur significant extra costs, making it wort

Also, slowing down with a crew means continuing to pay them for the extra days. Slowing down w/out one should not incur significant extra costs, making it worthwhile to do so.

robomartin 13y ago
You are trying to support a position that is simply not supportable. The cost of the crew is a mere rounding error when you consider fuel, insurance and other costs. I don't have the time to dig up my research from several years ago for all the details. As an example, I remember that crossing the Panama Canal costs several hundred thousand dollars for a PANAMAX class ship. This whole idea of slowing down the ships doesn't work because there's an asymptotic function attached to that idea. You can't wait half a year for 20,000 containers to get from China to Europe or the US. Business can't be conducted effectively when delivery times start getting ridiculous. Sixty days from China to Europe was horribly painful and it hurt business and economies in multiple ways. Again, I could be wrong. I'd like to read more. From my current vantage point this is as viable an idea as delivering books in Manhattan using drones.
- dalke 13y ago
  Wanted to research some numbers to back up your statements. http://www.hsh-nordbank.com/media/en/pdf/kundenbereiche/schifffahrt/research/betriebskosten_studie09/Kurzfassung_Betriebskostenstudie2009.pdf http://www.hsh-nordbank.com/media/en/pdf/kundenbereiche/schi... says that crew costs for a Post-Panamax I are US$3,712/day. Total operational costs are US$8,754/day . This excludes fuel. Slow-steaming for the same vessel is about 60 tons per day. http://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch8en/conc8en/fuel_consumption_containerships.html http://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch8en/conc8en/fuel_co... http://www.bunkerworld.com/prices/ http://www.bunkerworld.com/prices/ lists prices of around US$600/ton => $36,000 of fuel per day. Assuming the New Panamax toll is similar to the 2011 toll of $72/TEU listed at https://www.pancanal.com/eng/op/tolls.html https://www.pancanal.com/eng/op/tolls.html gives about $400,000 for a crossing. This corresponds to 10 days of sailing. Note that there's another day for transit. To double check, the Panama Canal saves about 13,000 km of travel. Slow steaming is about 35 km/hour, or about 15 days of sailing. Thus, for the cost of 11 days of sailing one can save 14 days, making the Panama Canal fee entirely reasonable.

Also, slowing down with a crew means continuing to pay them for the extra days. Slowing down w/out one should not incur significant extra costs, making it worthwhile to do so.

robomartin 13y ago

You are trying to support a position that is simply not supportable. The cost of the crew is a mere rounding error when you consider fuel, insurance and other costs. I don't have the time to dig up my research from several years ago for all the details. As an example, I remember that crossing the Panama Canal costs several hundred thousand dollars for a PANAMAX class ship. This whole idea of slowing down the ships doesn't work because there's an asymptotic function attached to that idea. You can't wait half a year for 20,000 containers to get from China to Europe or the US. Business can't be conducted effectively when delivery times start getting ridiculous. Sixty days from China to Europe was horribly painful and it hurt business and economies in multiple ways. Again, I could be wrong. I'd like to read more. From my current vantage point this is as viable an idea as delivering books in Manhattan using drones.

dalke 13y ago
Wanted to research some numbers to back up your statements. http://www.hsh-nordbank.com/media/en/pdf/kundenbereiche/schifffahrt/research/betriebskosten_studie09/Kurzfassung_Betriebskostenstudie2009.pdf http://www.hsh-nordbank.com/media/en/pdf/kundenbereiche/schi... says that crew costs for a Post-Panamax I are US$3,712/day. Total operational costs are US$8,754/day . This excludes fuel. Slow-steaming for the same vessel is about 60 tons per day. http://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch8en/conc8en/fuel_consumption_containerships.html http://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch8en/conc8en/fuel_co... http://www.bunkerworld.com/prices/ http://www.bunkerworld.com/prices/ lists prices of around US$600/ton => $36,000 of fuel per day. Assuming the New Panamax toll is similar to the 2011 toll of $72/TEU listed at https://www.pancanal.com/eng/op/tolls.html https://www.pancanal.com/eng/op/tolls.html gives about $400,000 for a crossing. This corresponds to 10 days of sailing. Note that there's another day for transit. To double check, the Panama Canal saves about 13,000 km of travel. Slow steaming is about 35 km/hour, or about 15 days of sailing. Thus, for the cost of 11 days of sailing one can save 14 days, making the Panama Canal fee entirely reasonable.