WHILE super-size containerships
sailing at comparatively low speeds carry international trade between Chinese
and European ports at low cost per container, the extended
time-durations-in-transit between the destination ports has prompted a segment
of the market to seek faster delivery of containers.
Railway lines extend across Russia
between borders with China and with Europe, but Russian trains operate on a
different railway gauge to China and Europe which use the international gauge.
Several years ago, a railway line built to the international gauge was opened
between Tehran, Iran and Beijing, China, and that includes a connection via
ferry around Lake Vaan into the European railway system.
The market for faster-than-ship
transportation of containers between China and Europe has risen to a level to
warrant multiple daily departures of trains along the steel-rail Great Silk
Road. At the present time, trains are restricted in length to carrying
100-containers (200 TEU) on a single level.
By comparison, several North
American railways and a few railway lines in India operate double-stack
containers on railway flat cars, greatly improving the effectiveness and cost
competitiveness of railway transportation. Some North American railways can
move 800 TEU on extended length container trains pulled by combination of
forward and mid-train locomotives.
The Great Silk Railroad seeks
to rival the delivery times of their North American counterparts, with
projected delivery between Eastern China and Western Europe being aimed at
one-week or less, reports Port Lauderdale's Maritime Executive.
By 2020, trains will need to move some two million TEU
per year between China and Europe. The
plan includes raising train speed by 30 per cent from 1,150km to 1,500km per
day along a 1.52-metre railway gauge (48-km/hour to 62-km/hour), also involving
logistical changes with customs departments at borders to reduce delays and a
major reconstruction along stretches of the Trans-Siberian Railway.
By 2025 to 2030, railway container trade between China
and Western Europe could approach three million TEU per year involving hourly departures of container trains that
involve forward and mid-train locomotives.
The market for fast deliver of high
priority containers could include daily flights of Boeing's proposed 28-TEU
airborne container carrier on 16 to 20-hour duration flights of 6,000-miles
distance that could likely transport just over 10,000-TEU per year. There could
even be a market for daily departures of a mega-size 5,000-tonne ground-effect
transport vehicle offering three-day delivery carrying containers over land and
over water between Shanghai and Bremen on River Elbe.
Cosco recently commissioned the design of a containership
of 25,000-TEU capacity. While its
projected operating costs are expected to be little different to that of ships
of 18,000 to 20,000-TEU, the additional capacity offer lower per-container
transportation costs between major Asian and European ports.
Egypt's Suez Canal Commission will ultimately decide the dimensions of the next
generation of mega-size container ships, after completion and opening of twin
navigation channels between the Mediterranean Sea and Gulf of Suez. There may
be scope for future deeper dredging to offer greater navigation depth along
future twin navigation channels to transit slightly deeper draft container
ships.
Faster overland transportation will
involve upgrades to both the railway lines to carry additional containers at
higher speed as well as streamlining customs inspections at borders to reduce
delays.
Source : HKSG.
