Cargo Ships - All you need to know

A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. Cargo ships are usually specially designed for the task, often being equipped with

and other mechanisms to load and unload, and come in all sizes. Today, they are almost always built of welded steel, and with some exceptions generally have a life expectancy of 25 to 30 years before being scrapped.

Types

Cargo ships/freighters can be divided into seven groups, according to the type of cargo they carry. These groups are:

1. Feeder ship

2. General cargo vessels

3. Container ships

4. Tankers

5. Dry bulk carriers

6. Multi-purpose vessels

7. Reefer ships

8. Roll-on/roll-off vessels.

Let's look into the Feeder, General Cargo and Container ships

Feeder Ships: A feeder vessel is used in so-called transshipment. The starting point are the large deep-sea vessels, which are not able to call at inland ports or even smaller seaports. For this reason, there are a few larger ports that act as “hubs” and ensure distribution. The containers or goods are then loaded onto a feeder vessel which takes them to their destination, from where they may be transported by truck. Conversely, goods from the inland also reach the loading ports directly via the rivers and canals and corresponding feeder ships. A feeder vessel in generally has a capacity of around 100 TEU, which is the unit for standard containers. Converted into tons, this corresponds to about 1,500 tons, although the value may vary. In some places, values between 300 and 1,000 TEU are also given as a guide

General Cargo Ships: A vessel designed to handle breakbulkcargo such as bags, cartons, cases, crates and drums, either individually or in unitized or palletized loads. General cargo or multi-purpose vessels are designed for flexibility and carry a huge variety of cargo. They are vessels that can be used both for the transport of various goods and as a working vessel. They often have their own loading gear. General cargo vessels carry various goods such as chemicals, food, machinery, clothes, etc.Multi-purpose vessels can be divided into four categories: vessels with and without cargo gear, coastal trade liners and sea-river vessels. Bigger multi-purpose vessels are able to carry different kinds of loading on the same voyage. Smaller multi-purpose vessels do not have this advantage but they are employed to get into smaller harbours because of their limited draught. Because of their varying operating conditions, these ships have complex designs that are difficult to build. Their all-round design must be able to carry heavy loads, large objects and unitised cargo as bulk cargo. These cargoes can be rolled or lifted on board so this requires different types of loading gear, as well.

Container ship (also called boxship or spelled containership) is a cargo ship that carries all of its load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. Container ships are a common means of commercial intermodal freight transport and now carry most seagoing non-bulk cargo.

Container ship capacity is measured in twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU). Typical loads are a mix of 20-foot (1-TEU) and 40-foot (2-TEU) ISO-standard containers, with the latter predominant.

Today, about 90% of non-bulk cargo worldwide is transported by container ships, and the largest modern container ships can carry up to 24,000 TEU