GIANT WIND BLADES ARE LARGEST NON-CONTAINER CARGO LOADED
The development of the wind turbine sector is creating new challenges for the shipping industry as giant wind blades and elements are shipped from their manufacturers to the staging points for their installation. APM Terminals Pecem, at the port of Pecem in northeast Brazil, recently handled the loading of three blades, which it reports became the largest non-containerized cargo operation in the world.
The shipment consisted of three giant wind blades, each of which measured approximately 238 feet in length. While these blades were only about two-thirds the length of the largest wind blades ever built, they were the largest in Brazil
and needed to be shipped from the port of Pecem in the north to the state of Santa Catarina in the south where they will be installed as part of the growing wind energy sector in the region. Each of the three blades weighs 21 tons requiring a complex loading operation.
According to operations manager, Herllon Rossato Rossdeutscher of APM Terminals Pecem more than a month of planning went into the operation. APM Terminals Pecém was the port of shipment with Maersk Brazil’s Logistics and Services team providing logistics solutions. Aliança Navegação e Logística, part of the Hamburg Sud group of companies running freight operations along the coast of Brazil and South America, was the carrier transporting the blades.
For the operations, a Ship to Shore (STS) crane provided by APM Terminals Pecém was first used to ship flat rack containers to serve as a base for the support and movement frames on which the blades would be rest. Two mobile port cranes (MHC type) were used to hoist the blades and load them aboard the containerships. The first shipment was aboard the 836-foot long Bartolomeu Dias. Days later a second shipment was loaded aboard her sister ship the Vincente Pinzon.
UPDATED GUIDELINES FOR THE CARRIAGE OF SEED CAKE IN CONTAINERS ISSUED
The International Group together with the Cargo Incident Notification System (CINS) have jointly released an updated version of the “Guidelines for the Carriage of Seed Cake in Containers”.
For reference, the term Seed Cake refers to pulp, meals, cake, pellets, expellers and other similar cargo where edible vegetable oils have been removed from oil-bearing seeds, cereals or commodities with similar properties. The carriage of Seed Cake cargoes continues to cause confusion and the potential for undeclared or misdeclared cargo remains high, with the consequent risk of fire on board container ships.
As the new version of the guidelines notes: It is vital that Seed Cake that is not classified in Class 4.2 of the IMDG Code. In fact, it should be declared by the shipper to the receiving carrier and appropriate documentation provided to show that the Seed Cake as offered for shipment has been tested in accordance with the provisions of the IMDG Code.
The shipper should ensure that the correct certification accompanies the cargo and is provided to the carrier in accordance with the oil content and moisture content of the Seed Cake and that the Seed Cake has been properly aged and where appropriate is substantially free from flammable solvents. According to the guidance, the IMDG Code does not specify what ‘properly aged’ means. In practice, as the duration of ageing varies with the oil content, ‘properly aged’ means that the Seed Cake should be sufficiently mature for oil content that can oxidize at ambient temperatures to have done so.
Non-declaration of Seed Cake as dangerous goods leads to unsafe stowage and dramatically increases the risk of fire, potentially leading to loss of life, assets and damage to the environment.
Access the updated guidelines at
https://bit.ly/3ebbCMP.
The Report • June 2021 • Issue 96 | 11
Marine News
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