Ultra Large Vessel Fleet Case Study

The Large vessel fleet is growing slowly giving some advantages but also causing some challenges. At present there are more than 160 vessels operating globally able to carry 10,000+ TEU’s. This number will grow in coming years by another well over 100 vessels. As we have seen earlier the largest of these Ultra Large Container vessels (ULC’s) are able to carry more than 20,000 TEU’s. The ULC’s is changing the face of maritime cargo freight industry affecting everything harbours, supply chain, transport infrastructure, support services in various different ways.
Many industry experts estimate the positive impact of using ULC’s is equal or bigger than the negative impact of these vessels. All the impacts are very interrelated and it is a very close call. The amount is ULC on order for future delivery and reading the views of the bigger shipping lines shows that they see the future positives outweighing the potential negatives in the long run.

Even the hull size might pose challenges in the long-term due to issues such as “springing” and “whipping.”
These issues, which are related to the size of the vessel and its potential for hull stress due to rough seas, is generally a non-issue due to vessel route changes that can usually avoid any storm or rough seas. What is unclear is if these factors limit the size of these vessels in any way since they are not yet fully understood and require further research over a given vessel’s