PORTS
Ports are a central part of the Australia’s supply chain, responsible for 98 per cent of its trade.
billion), Japan (AUD 34 billion), South Korea (AUD 23 billion), India (AUD 12 billion) and the UK (AUD 10 billion).
Current trends and typical handling challenges in ports
Dry bulk trade and the importance of bulk solids handling in ports TUNRA Bulk Solids’ engineer, Dr Priscilla Freire, looks at some current trends in maritime trade of dry bulk and typical issues encountered in the storage and handling of bulk solids. ACCORDING TO THE UNITED NATIONS Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Handbook of Statistics [1], a total of 7.9 billion tons of dry bulk cargo were loaded and 7.7 billion tons were unloaded world-wide during 2019. In the same year, Australia occupied the 20th position in terms of number of port calls, with 66,076 calls. As an island nation, ports are a central part of the Australia’s supply chain, responsible for 98 per cent of its trade. Commodities such as iron ore, coal, bauxite, aluminium oxide and concentrates in general are amongst the highest tonnage exports; however, dry bulk ports are also central to the country’s domestic activities, connecting the west and east coasts or the mainland and Tasmania. Australia has long held the position of world’s largest iron ore exporter,
with 828 million tonnes exported in 2017, followed by Brazil (approximately 420 Mt) and China (about 200 Mt) [2]. With the majority of its iron ore originating in the Pilbara region, Port Hedland, Dampier and Cape Lambert occupy the highest position in iron ore exports in Australia. Similarly, some of the largest coal ports in the world are also located in Australia, including the Port of Newcastle, Port of Hay Point and Port of Gladstone, among several other ports of major international relevance, totalling about 390 million tonnes of coal being exported in the coal terminals in NSW and QLD in 2019-2020 [3]. Regarding the destination of Australia’s export, the Office of the Chief Economist [4] has reported that the five key destinations of Australian resources and energy-based exports in 2020-2021 were China (AUD 149
48 І Australian Bulk Handling Review: January/February 2022
The storage, handling and transportation of bulk solid materials are major activities for a variety of industries not only in Australia but worldwide, and efficient bulk solids handling operations are of vital importance in the supply chain. This becomes even more evident in ports, where the larger throughputs and number of materials often present unique challenges. From environmental and safety concerns such as dust emissions, risk of liquefaction, selfheating or explosions, to unplanned maintenance stops potentially leading to excessive demurrage costs, appropriate design of bulk handling equipment is the key to ensure operational efficiency. The following trends have been observed in recent years in relation to international dry bulk trade, which naturally affect handling and storage operations [5]: - The average deadweight of dry bulk carriers is increasing: for Handymax vessels, it increased from 24,100 deadweight tons (dwt) in the 80s to 28,100 dwt in 2016. Panamax vessels increased from 67,800 dwt to 74,600 dwt in the same period, whilst Capesize and Ultra Large Capesize increased from 117,000 dwt to 196,000. This is not to mention the advent of the Valemax ships, which started being produced in 2011 and whose capacity ranges from 380,000 to 400,000 dwt. - Further to the increase in average deadweight, there has also been a shift to using larger ships as opposed to smaller: in 1980, handy size vessels used to account for 54.3 per cent of bulk fleet capacity worldwide, whilst Capesize ships only accounted for 14.7 per cent. In 2000, these figures were close to 50 per cent, with an accelerated shift in carrying capacity in the past decade: In 2016, Handy size vessels accounted for approximately 17 per cent while
