All of us know which is the worlds largest container ship..
Does anyone know
- The smallest container ship in operation today
- It’s capacity
- Where it is operating
It would be interesting to find out isn’t it..??
Lloyd’s List Intelligence via their twitter feed told me :-
1) If you are looking in terms of DWT it is the NP Bloom, IMO 9511715, 355 tonnes GRT and 976 tonnes DWT
2) From what we can see the smallest fully cellular vessel, in terms of TEU is the Bao Zhong 23, IMO 8925024 with 70TEU
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Image of the NP Bloom sent by @Camebyship.. Cute isn’t she.. 🙂
On a traditional note though, I came across images of below ship(s) which as Vincent Saubin pointed out is a “djahazi” which means boat and is from the Comores Islands..
Below narration from a YouTube Video explains it all..
The djahazi, the traditional vessels of the Comoros Islands were used until 2006 to transport containers to the docks of the capital Moroni.
In 2006, following the modernisation of the port the use of the djahazi was prohibited.
In the words of the curator Octavio Zaya, in his text for the Biennale general catalogue, ‘Paolo W. Tamburella has fixed and restored five of the twenty-eight boats forsaken at the port, with the help of workers from Moroni, but not as an antiquarian and nostalgic affectation.
On the contrary, in Venice, these vessels, which will be loaded with the regular shipping containers used in most of today’s trade, will stand as a metaphor for an ambivalent globality.’
The boats will arrive in Venice managed by the dockers of Moroni and loaded with containers just as they were until 2006, docking in front of the Giardini della Biennale, where they will stay for the entire period of the Biennale (22 Nov 2009).
Nice one, but looks dangerous. I mean what if, these containers have ‘hazardous cargo’.
Realy you made me laugh , thank you.
Essam Hamed
Export manager
Thank you for this article Hariesh, I have been thinking about this topic for some time now.
In light of developments that have been taking place in the international shipping markets with respects of increasing vessel sizes and alliances such as the P2 it seems obvious that the trend is leaning towards ‘bigger is better’.
However (and please bear in mind that this is an opinion based on limited experience), I have been asking myself what does the future holds for smaller vessels?
Does anyone think that the rising trend of developments in African ports would expand the market for short-sea shippment along the African coast? and if it would would it not warrant the use of smaller vessels.
What other opinions do you have about the future of smaller vessels if any?
Hello Mthokozisi, smaller vessels will always have a place in the industry as these large vsls cannot call at all ports.. Not all ports are developed enough to handle these behemoths, so these smaller ships will be around..
Short-sea shipments along the coasts of various countries is one area where these can be deployed.. With the increase in the size of vsls, there will be more opportunities for the smaller ships to participate in the hub & spoke concept for transhipping cargo from hub ports..
Hey! Thanks for sharing above information. And what is size and capacity of smallest container operational? Any container smaller then 20′?
Hello Rudraksh, there are also 10′ containers in the market, but those are not very popular in international trade, but they are available..
I love the photo of the 1TEU vessel. It looks like something has “fallen of the back of a lorry”.
It is a sobering thought to think that the largest container ship has 257 times the capacity of the smallest !
Hello,
This picture comes from Comores islands. Due to poor infrastructure, it is sometimes better to get unit loaded/ discharged from vessel onto local boat ‘djahazi’. I guess this unit is empty and comes either from port to be loaded on board of container vessel by ship’s cranes.
Picture to be backdated to 2006.
Hope this helps !
enjoy shipping !
Vincent
Thanks Vincent.. You are right.. This is from Comores and ‘djahazi’ means ship or boat.. 🙂 There is even a video – which you can see here
..
There is also an explanation which is quite interesting..