Shipping & Freight Definitions — cargo, logistics and transport terms from Apparel Search
Bulk cargo is cargo that is unpacked and homogeneous, meaning it consists of the same or a similar kind of material throughout, rather than separate packaged items. Instead of being loaded piece by piece, bulk cargo is dropped or poured with a spout or shovel bucket, as a liquid or as a solid, directly into the hold of a bulk carrier, a rail car, or a truck-trailer body. Bulk cargoes are classified as liquid or dry. Dry bulk includes coal, grain such as wheat, maize, rice and soybeans, iron ore, wood chips, cement, chemicals, fertilizers, sand and gravel, salt, flour, raw sugar and similar materials. Liquid bulk includes oil, liquefied natural gas, gasoline, chemicals, and liquid edibles such as vegetable oil and cooking oil. The scale can be enormous: very large bulk carriers are among the biggest ships afloat, built to move a single commodity between a small number of ports equipped to load and discharge it. In the textile chain, bulk movement matters for raw materials and inputs such as fibers, chemicals, dyes and plastic pellets used to make synthetic materials.
The largest bulk carriers cargo ship in the world is the iron ore carrier Berge Stahl. Weighing in at a massive 364,768 dead-weight-tons (metric), she was built in 1986. The Berge Stahl is 1,122 feet (343m) long, has a beam, or width, of 208.3 feet (65m), and a draft, or depth in the water, of 75.5 feet (23m). The Hyundai B&W 7L90MCE diesel engine is 30-feet high, drives a single 30-ft screw, and puts out 27,610 horsepower. She is owned by the Norwegian shipping company Bergesen D.Y. ASA, and has a top speed of 13.5 knots. Because of her massive size, the Berge Stahl can only tie up at two ports in the world, hauling ore from the Terminal Mar timo de Ponta da Madeira in Brazil to the Port of Rotterdam-Europoort in the Netherlands, making the trip about ten times each year, or a round-trip about every five weeks.
Related
Terms:
Cargo
| The above article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/bulk_cargo). 12/30/05 |
Handling bulk cargo is a matter of flow rather than piece count. Dry bulk is moved by conveyor belts, grabs, cranes with buckets, and pneumatic systems that pour grain, ore, cement or pellets into open holds or hopper cars. Liquid bulk is pumped through pipelines and hoses into tank compartments, with careful measurement by weight, volume and, for liquids, temperature and density. Because there is no packaging to separate one part of the load from another, the entire shipment is treated as one quantity, and sampling and inspection are used to confirm quality. Contamination control is a central concern: holds and tanks must be cleaned between incompatible cargoes, and moisture can damage dry commodities such as grain, sugar or cement during a long voyage.
On land, the same logic applies in smaller units. Hopper rail cars discharge dry bulk through bottom gates, tanker trucks carry liquid bulk in sealed compartments, and silos and storage tanks hold the cargo between legs of the journey. Ports that specialize in bulk have dedicated berths, stockpile yards, silos and tank farms rather than container yards, and their economics depend on keeping large volumes moving steadily.
Finished clothing almost never moves as bulk cargo, since garments are packed in cartons and shipped in containers. Bulk cargo matters to the fashion business one step earlier, at the level of raw materials and industrial inputs. Cotton and other fibers may move in compressed bales, which are unit loads rather than true bulk, but the chemicals, plastic granules and pellets, resin powders and synthetic fiber feedstocks used by textile mills are classic bulk commodities. Fertilizer used to grow fiber crops, fuels that power mills and ships, and grains and oils that form part of broader commodity markets all move in bulk, so bulk freight rates and port capacity indirectly affect textile production costs.
Understanding bulk cargo also helps importers read the wider shipping market. Bulk carriers and container ships compete for some of the same port infrastructure and are affected by the same fuel prices and trade cycles, even though they carry very different goods. When bulk commodity demand surges, vessel supply, port congestion and freight costs across shipping can shift, including on the container routes that carry finished apparel.
Bulk shipments are priced and measured by weight or volume, commonly in metric tons, rather than by the piece or carton. Freight may be quoted per ton for a full shipload, and contracts often cover repeated voyages of the same commodity between the same ports. Draft surveys, in which a vessel is measured before and after loading, are a traditional way to determine how much dry bulk cargo was actually loaded. For buyers of textile inputs, these bulk-market practices explain why raw material prices are quoted by weight and why delivery schedules follow harvests, mining output and shipping availability rather than retail seasons.
Bulk cargo is unpacked and homogeneous, poured or pumped directly into a hold, rail car or trailer. Containerized cargo consists of separate packaged goods loaded inside standard containers, each container holding distinct items for a specific shipper and receiver.
Bulk cargo is classified as liquid or dry. Liquid bulk includes oil, liquefied natural gas, gasoline, chemicals and vegetable oil. Dry bulk includes coal, grain, iron ore, cement, wood chips, fertilizer, sand, sugar and similar loose solids.
Very large bulk carriers have deep drafts and need specialized loading and discharge equipment, deep water and large storage areas. Only a limited number of terminals can handle their size, so they run repeated voyages between the same equipped ports.