With the ongoing growth in sea-borne trade, utilisation of larger vessels and demand for quick port turnaround, marine terminals are facing significant challenges to cope. Most of the traditional ports still have to rely on old, last generation shipment systems and drafts restriction, thus preventing the industry benefiting from the use of the modern fleet of vessels.
Many existing ports are trying to improve existing approach channels and berthing facilities sufficiently to enable them to handle larger vessels. However, costs for this are not always justifiable economically.
Floating terminals should be taken into more serious consideration as viable alternatives.
There are many cases in coal, iron ore, copper and agrobulk markets where commodities move solely thanks to the introduction of the floating terminals.
Unlike for other standard vessels’ cranes, the type of facility to be installed on the floating berth would become a key component of the end user’s logistics supply chain.
This brings about a fundamental difference in the designing and selection of cargo handling facilities, which have to be designed specifically for ‘heavy-duty operation, in open sea’. Deep and long lasting marine background is also a vital designing milestone for reliable and smooth operation, consequently.
We know of examples where….
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