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Middle East Liner Trades — An Economic Analysis Sulzer Diesels Power First Combined Ro/Ro Mini-Bulk Carrier On Inland Waterways Of Europe Trimming tanks on the RoRo-Simmental are brought into use during loading and un- loading of large and heavy items. Hydraulic winches are employed to pull cargo onboard. The first combined roll-on/roll- off mini-bulk carrier/inland mo- torship in Europe—the RoRo-Sim- mental—belonging to the Swiss company Rohr- und Saar-Kohle AG, was recently commissioned. The vessel is 95 meters long (ap- proximately 312 feet), about 11 meters wide (36 feet), and with a deadweight of 2,400 tons, has a draft of 3.45 meters (11 feet). With this first ro/ro ship for in- land waterway traffic, heavy car- goes can be transported by way of an inclined ramp directly in the cargo space. The trimming tanks are brought into use during the loading and unloading operations. Hydraulic winches are employed to pull the cargo onboard. Tur- bines, transformers, boiler, chemi- cal plant components, and other large installation equipment items can thus be loaded or unloaded at any desired location without the use of large special cranes. The RoRo-Simmental can also trans- port solid fuels in European in- land waters. As is the case for the vessel as a whole, emphasis is placed on the economy of operation for the en- gine installation as well. The call for a robust and comparatively simple layout, together with op- timal reliability of operation, has been able to be met by means of Sulzer A-type diesel engines. These machines have already Tacoma Boat To Build Escher Wyss Propellers The Tacoma Boatbuilding Co., Inc., Tacoma, Wash., and Escher Wyss GmbH, Ravensburg, Fed- eral Republic of Germany, re- cently signed a licensing agree- ment which will permit Tacoma to manufacture Escher Wyss propellers at its works in Tacoma. Escher Wyss has been a major manufacturer of controllable- pitch propellers for over 40 years. At present, more than 1,300 Escher Wyss propellers are in service. Two of them, with a di- ameter of 7.2 meters (about 23.6 feet) and a power rating of 34,000 kw each, are the most powerful of their kind in the world. Tacoma Boatbuilding's recent proven their worth in over 2,000 installations as prime movers for fishing, special and inland vessels, or as auxiliary generating sets on large oceangoing ships. The Haslital, a previous new- building for the same owners, is equipped with two engines, type 6AL25/30, which each have a rat- ing of 735 kw at 720 rev/min. As a result of further development and uprating in power, it was pos- sible to select the smaller type 6AL20/24 for the Simmental, and to retain the same engine room conception. In this way, powerful engines— designed according to the latest knowledge for continuous opera- tion—may be installed in a rela- tively small space. Good accessi- bility for inspection purposes and overhaul work on the main en- gines, as well as other compo- nents, was decisive for the overall layout of the engine room. Consequently, a two-engine in- stallation (twin-shaft arrange- ment) with Sulzer four-stroke en- gines, type 6AL20/24, having the following data was selected for the total power requirements: Design principal—trunk-piston engine with supercharger, nonreversible; Bore/stroke—200/240 mm; Num- ber of cylinders—6; Mode of oper- ation—four-stroke; Rating—620 kw (840 bhp), and Speed—1,000 rev/min. deliveries included fast, multimis- sion patrol boats, tuna seiners, tugboats, drilling rigs, and off- shore supply boats. Ships presently on order in- clude four twin-screw patrol chasers for the U.S. Navy and four twin-screw medium endur- ance cutters for the U.S. Coast Guard. These vessels will be fitted with Tacoma Boat-Escher Wyss con- trollable-pitch propellers. The propellers for the patrol chasers will have a diameter of 2.7 meters (about 9 feet), and a power rating of 8,500 kw at 350 rev/ min. In the case of the medium- endurance cutters, the propellers are 2.7 meters (about 9 feet) in diameter, and have a power rating of 2,600 kw at 260 rev/ min. Liner shipping to the Middle East has gone through a succes- sion of fundamental changes since 1973. The tremendous boom in traffic which followed the oil price rise could not be accommodated by existing ports in the region and, as a result, congestion rose to unprecedented levels. Freight rates also soared. A variety of measures were introduced to com- bat this situation. In shipping, the first significant move was the switching of ro/ro ferries from their traditional short-sea routes (in the North Sea and elsewhere) to deepsea Middle East trades. Port congestion, which reached horrendous levels in 1975-76, has since disappeared much faster than many people had anticipated. This can be ascribed to a combi- nation of "congestion-beater" services (ro/ro and other), the opening of new berths, the intro- duction of expatriate port man- agement and a range of strong local initiatives. Additionally, the contribution of slower traffic growth should not be ignored. Looking ahead over the next few years, some important changes in seaborne traffic to the Middle East can be anticipated. The initial boom in imports which followed the 1973 oil price rise has now subsided in most states, with im- port growth falling back to more sustainable levels. Focusing on the liner sector, it seems likely that declining imports of building ma- terials and steel products (due to peaking of construction activity and increased local steel produc- tion) and of manufactured ferti- lizers (again, due to increased local production) will offset in ton- nage terms continued growth in demand for foodstuffs, machinery and transport equipment and con- sumer goods over the next few years. In the longer term, despite efforts to develop general manu- facturing industries and step up local food production, the forces for growth should reassert them- selves. On the basis of a 4 percent per annum growth in liner traffic to ports in the Arabian Peninsula and Iran in the early 1980s, liner traffic to this area would reach 32 million tons in 1980 and 39 million tons in 1985, compared with an estimated 31 million tons in 1977 and 25 million tons in 1976. These statistics are taken from "Middle East Liner Shipping: An Economic Analysis of Traffic, Services, Ports and Future Pros- pects," the latest in a long line of reports from HPD Shipping Pub- lications. Although the boom in liner traffic has eased recently, new services have continued to enter Middle East trades at a rapid rate. With the decline in vessel waiting times, conventional liner tonnage is re-emerging as a major force. In addition to ro/ro services, large numbers of small, geared cellular vessels have been introduced by operators since 1976, and with new, gantry-equipped container termi- nals opening up, gearless con- tainerships are also beginning to appear. On top of this, there is a noticeable trend toward larger vessels, offering scope for cost sav- ings through scale economies. Add to all this LASH vessels, towed barge systems and hybrid vessels (such as the "Strider" class), and the variety of shipping types com- peting on Middle East routes can be seen to exceed that of any other major liner trade. By summer 1977, capacity on ro/ro and container services into the Middle East had reached an estimated 35,000 TEU per month, with 25,000 TEU to the Gulf and around 10,000 TEU to Red Sea ports. Of the Gulf capacity, some 19,000 TEU was being provided by geared containerships, with ro/ro-based tonnage accounting for most of the remainder. In the Red Sea, unitized traffic was largely rolling in either pure ro/ros, ro/ro container hybrids (with ro/ro access but cellular stowage) or towed barges (with ro/ro access and stowage). By March 1978, unitized capacity on Middle East routes had risen to an estimated 58,000 TEU per month, with container services account- ing for 39,000 TEU and ro/ro- based services for an estimated 19,000 TEU. H.P. Drewry calculations sug- gest that average load factors on Middle East routes have declined over the past year. Other evidence —a fall in freight rates, the finan- cial difficulties of some operators and "rationalization" of services —supports the view that these trades are overtonnaged at pres- ent. There would seem to be little prospect of any rapid improve- ment in fortunes. A significant number of container, ro/ro and even conventional vessels are on order for Middle East routes, and several new services have been announced in recent months, prin- cipally from the Far East and Australia. It may be several years before the further penetration of unitization boosts container and ro/ro traffic sufficiently to absorb the surplus unitized tonnage. An anticipated absolute decline in con- ventional liner traffic will tend to maintain excess capacity in this sector, even though only limited additions to the range of conven- tional services on offer are for- seen. As regards the ports, the pro- grams of massive development, spurred on by the post-1973 traf- 42 Maritime Reporter/Engineering News
