To know the type of container ships. Let’s first dive into its history, which began in 1955 when the ship Clifford J. Rogers was launched. Its inaugural operation involved the ferrying of around 600 cargo containers from British Columbia to Scag Wig. The world’s first purpose-built container ship, measured Slightly over 102 meters in length Wise, with a breath of over 14 m and A height of over seven m, With grd of around 4000 tons. After almost six decades, the container shipping industry now carries about 60% of the value of goods shipped via sea. and it is predicted that in the next decade, 90% of the general global cargo will be shipped in containers. Contains ships are considered to be the fastest mode of shipping transport and can reach speed to an average of 20-25 knots. However, many shipping lines are opting for slow steaming to cope up with rising bunker, fuel prices, and overcapacity There are many types of container ships that can be classified on the basis of generation size of the container ship handling modes of the shipping service range types of container ships in terms of size and generation First generation, As mentioned earlier, the first generation of container ship came into existence in 1950 where the type of container ships started and the world’s first purpose-built container ship was launched.
The types of container ships are classified on the base of its size and the number of containers that it can carry. Main type of container ships are as mentioned below
- Ultra Large Container Vessel
- New Panamax
- Post-Panamax
- Panamax
- small feeder
- feeder
- feeder max
Further going the type of container ships are not only classified on the size it is further classified depending on the structure and the meterial that the ships carry example,
- Container Vessels
- Bulk Vessels
- Breakbulk Vessels
- Ro-Ro Vessels
- Multi-purpose Vessels
- Tanker Vessels
- Crude Carriers
- LNG Carriers
- Reefer Vessel
The first generation of container ships traded between 1950 to 1970 and had a Carrying capacity of 500 – 800 TEU. The use of 20 ft equivalent units, mostly tanker ships, and bulk cargo ships was Modified to carry containers during that time. 2nd generation cellular ships, The second generation of container ships came into the picture during 1970-1980 when cellular container ships were made in shipyards to exclusively carry container cargo. The capacity of these ships was between 1000 to 2000 TEU and the ship’s Length can go up to 215 m. Mv. Karenga was the world’s first fully Cellular purpose-built container ship, third-generation or Panama’s ships. These ships were introduced during the 19 80s as the growing economies rapidly pushed the need for the larger container ships to lower the operating costs. The Panamax ships were made keeping in mind that they can cross the Panama Canal with a capacity of 4000 TEU.
This Generation vessel dominated the container trade between 1980 – 1988. The length of these vessels was between 250 to 2 90 m. 4th Generation or Post Panamax Ships. The new size and capacity of vessels which were introduced in 1988 known as post-Panamax had 4500 TEU capacity and a width of 32.2 m, which was the limit requirement of the Panama Canal at that time the length of these ships was between 275 to 305 . Class ships were the first post-Panamax Westerns fifth generation or Post Panamax Plus. In 1996 post-Panamax plus vessel with a container capacity of 6500TEU. Was introduced, which was not long but wider to be more efficient As time passed, container ships with 8000 TEU. Mark started sailing at sea with deeper drafts And having a length of approximately 335 m. Six generations’ shoes match ships or very large container ships.
From the year 2006, the type of container ship had a drastic change in the container ship construction and very large container ships were introduced with a Capacity of 11,000 to 14,000 TEU And a length of approximately 400 m which were able to pass the Suez Canal. Emma Maersk is one of the most famous VlCCS, which came into fame because of its length . New Panamax ships In 2016, as the new extended Panama Canal was inaugurated container ships With a carrying capacity of 12,500 TEU Ships were introduced to cross the new canal with a length of up to 366 meters post Swiss max or ultra-large container ships. A further extension of the shoes max design led to the introduction of ultra large container ship class of 18,000 to 21,000 TEU. These ships are 400 m long and affected by the size restrictions of the Swiss canal.
The Triple E Class ships by Mosque were the first to breach this Mark malika max. These are ships designed which are not yet built, but on paper, they can go up to the length of 500 m, which will become the longest ship in the world with the capacity of 25,000 teu. Conroe stands for the container, roll on roll off vessels. These ships can carry a combination of containers and dedicated cargo. The containers are mostly stowed on deck and the transport rolling cargo will be loaded in their ships belly or hold their twin decks can be hoisted or lowered to adjust deck heights to suit the cargo whether cars or other heavy vehicles Lolo ships. Lola stands for lift on lift off ships which are provided with cranes to lift the cargo for loading or unloading.
Both 20 Foot containers and 40 ft containers can be shipped on board these lolo vessels for the cargo, which cannot be fitted inside the containers It can be lifted placed, and secured directly on its deck or hold a good amount of space are made available on the top deck so that it can be altered to fit the needs of the freight that is lifted on for transportation container ships on the basis of service range barges for inland waterways, a container carrying barges are used to transport the containers into inland waters where feeder vessels cannot transit In this type of intermodal transport, the barge carries 100 to 300 containers depending upon the size of the barge. The barge can be self-propelled or can be pushed using tugs attached to its feeder’s vessels. These are small capacities ships having a capacity of around 1000 D Use.
As the name suggests, these ships are suitable for feeder services. It will feed cargo to mother vessels from smaller ports to larger ports or from larger ports to smaller ports where a bigger vessel cannot dock or sale the mother vessel. The mother vessel is big in size as compared to feed a vessel and is usually bounded for international traits to serve between major big ports. Mother vessels have the capacity to carry thousands of containers and it can vary from 2000 to 21,000 T use mother vessel calls only main ports and covers large distance compared to feed a vessel container ship in the range of 5000 to 8000 t. You are considered to be the most flexible in terms of the ports they can access and the market thickens service. Since using larger ships require fewer port calls, However, due to the avalibilities of different type of container ships it is beeing possible for provideing better provision to carry a huge amount of cargo for the same distance, providing larger savings in fuel and operating costs.
Therefore, the limits of economies to scale in container shipping are much more limited by commercial attributes than by technical constraints. If you have any questions or suggestions, please drop your comments below and we will get back to you at the earliest.