(1) Shipping | Economies of Scale Made Steel; The economics of very big ships. Economist, Nov 12, 2011.
http://www.economist.com/node/21538156
Quote:
"ABOARD one of the world’s largest container ships, moving almost imperceptibly through the seas off Vietnam, it’s easy to appreciate the economies of scale that allow a T-shirt made in China to be sent to the Netherlands for just 2.5 cents. * * * The Eleonora Maersk and the other seven ships in her class are among the biggest ever built: almost 400m long, or the length of four football pitches, and another half-pitch across. The ship can carry 7,500 or so 40-foot containers, each of which can hold 70,000 T-shirts. * * * move all this cargo from China to Europe in just over three weeks * * * the ship is so automated that it requires a mere 13 people to crew it.
"Most of these [gigantic] vessels will be designed for the Europe-Asia run—now the world’s busiest trade route.
Note:
(a) History of Maersk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Maersk
(1886: [Danish] Captain Peter Mærsk-Møller buys his first steamship, the British-built S.S. Laura)
(b) The "pitch" in "almost 400m long, or the length of four football pitches, and another half-pitch across" is a noun that means
"chiefly British: playing field")
So the words above means 400 meters or 4 soccer fields long and a half soccer field wide.
(b) Founded by by CY Tung (Tung Chao Yung 董兆榮, better known as 董浩雲; 1912 Ningbo-1982 Hong Kong) in 1947, Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) 東方海外貨櫃航運公司 is a Hong Kong-based container shipping and logistics service company.
Wikipedia
(c) The article mentions "Felixstowe, Bremerhaven and Rotterdam, the three main European container ports."
(i) Felixstowe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felixstowe
(the largest container port in UK)
(ii) Bremerhaven
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bremerhaven
(German literally ‘Bremen’s harbor’)
The English word haven (n; Middle English, from Old English hæfen; akin to Middle High German habene harbor)
All definitions are from www.m-w.com, except otehrwise noted.
(2) Robert Wright and Simon Rabinovitch, Grand China Angers Shipowners by Withholding Payment. Financial Times, Nov 17, 2011.
Quote:
"Greece's family owned Vafias Group, Oslo-listed Golden Ocean and Bergen-based Spar Shipping told the Financial Times they were either taking legal action or withdrawing ships from charters after Hainan-based Grand China Logistics halted payments on Vessels used to transport dry bulk commodities.
"In September China's Cosco 中远, the world's biggest operator of dry bulk ships, resumed payments after withholding cash in an effort to force shipowners to regotiate high-priced charter contracts. State-owned Cosco backed down after three of its ships were seized by bailiffs and prevented from leaving port.
Note:
(a) Grand China Logistics Holding (Group) Co 大新华物流控股(集团)有限公司 (海航集团旗下)
http://www.grandcl.com/
(b) A Chinese-language summary of the FT report:
大新华物流拖欠租船费用引发纠纷. 华尔街日报中文网, Nov 17, 2011.
http://cn.wsj.com/gb/20111117/bch141227.asp
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