Unveiling of the Optimal Feeder Container Ship for B&R

By Chen Yongnian

From the historical and realistic view, shipping trade is undoubtedly the most immediate booster of Maritime Silk Road. The statistics of import and export container cargo in recent years show that the compound average growth rate of annual container cargo between China and the ten ASEAN members is up to 7.37%.In addition, due to various constraints including geographic position, some ports in Southeast Asia have more limitation on main dimensions of ships. Therefore, it becomes particularly important to choose suitable ship design indices.

CCS upholds the service tenet of creating value to customers and society, keeps abreast with the trend of national strategic development,analyzes comprehensively the factors including shipping features, shipping route layout,port condition, freight source and volume, indices of ships in service and marketing potential of container ships, and then researches and introduces a ship scheme which applies to the feeder operation in Southeast Asia with excellent capability to suit ports and cargo and optimal technical index. It is based on the scheme that CCS and SDARI jointly developed the Beltand-Road-type 3800TEU feeder container ship.

According to the comprehensive analysis, CCS proposes a ship scheme that applies to the B&R feeder operation of container ship for the Southeast Asia Region in the future, the indices of which are as follows:

1. The LOA is suggested to adopt 200m, which meets the requirements of 15 ports out of 17 base ports with a coverage rate up to 88%. Except Port Kolkata in India, it meets the limitations of the other B&R ports in Southeast Asia Region with a coverage rate of 91%.

2. Although there is a draught limitation of 7.4m in Haiphong Port, Container ship in operation usually has residual depth, and if necessary, we can reduce the load when a ship enters. The maximum draught of B&R ships is suggested to adopt around 10-11m when designing.

3. Combining the shipping waters of the global feeder container ship with the port limitations, considering the lock limit of Panama Canal for a better universal performance, we suggest adopting a beam length of 32.2m. If a bigger container capacity is required, we suggest a beam around 35m.

4. Benefiting from the continuous improvement of ship design technology, combining the technical index of ships under building, we suggest a container capacity of 2900～3200 TEU for narrow-body ships 32.2m) and 3600～3900 TEU for wide-body ships (35m) to enhance its market competitiveness.

5. According to a number of operational data statistics of ships of the same type in service, we suggest adopting a speed of 19～21 knots. This index can be decided basing on an overall consideration of owners’ operation features,beam and energy eff i ciency.

6. Daily fuel consumption of ships directly influences ships’ economic performance and market competitiveness.Statistical analysis of indices of ships in service shows that at present with a speed of 18kn, daily fuel consumption should be less than 50 tons.