CARGOES: WILLIAM V.

PACKARD

TRADES & CHARTER PARTIES:

The world s main exporters of g rains are the USA; Canad a; Argentina; Uruguay and B razil; Australia and New Zealand ; Thailand and Burma; The Ukraine and Southern Russia and the EC, this being reflected by certain specialised charter party forms created for the grain trades and which tend to apply to certain loading areas. The charter p arties include, amongst others, the following major forms:Ex USA & Canada: North American Grain C/P Baltimore Form C revised 1971 Continent Grain C/P 1957 revised 1974 and 1990 Australian Barley C/P 1975 Australian Wheat C/P 1990 Chamber of Shipping River Plate C/P 1914 Norgrain South 2000 NORGRAIN BFC SYNACOMEX AUSB AR AUSTWHEAT CENTROCON NORGRAIN SOUTH

Ex EC:

Ex Australia:

Ex South America:

The grain trades are constantly evolving by way of political, economic and climatic reasons. Drought affects crops in all parts of the world . Many years ago South Af rica was a major grain exporter of corn, but several years of serious dro ught in So uthern Af rica during the 1980s led to that country importing grain. In more recent years North America has been affected by drought as well as Australia, which has led to an almost undreamt of reversal of trade in that British wheat has been exported to Australia and Ukrainian wheat to Canada. Major importers of grains includ e Bangladesh; Jap an and Korea; China and Taiwan; Middle Eastern Nations ; North and East Africa; and the EC. Ind ia, fifty years ago a major importer of bulk wheat, has transformed her agriculture to such an extent that, despite her huge population, she presently enjoys adequate grain stockpiles and is in a position to export surplus prod uce. Even the desert nation of Saudi Arabia is capable of exporting wheat grown in irrigated fields adjacent to her Red Sea ports.

CARGO-HANDLING:
Before a vessel can load grain, local officials will carry out a thoroug h inspection of her compartments and surrounding areas to ensure that these cargo spaces are clean and fit to receive cargo, with no resid ues remaining from the previous voyage; that there is no insect or rodent infestation; or stro ng odours; and that hold sid es and bottoms, as well as the underside of hatch covers are free of rust scale. With few exceptions, handling equipment at load ing ports is sophisticated, grain elevators being eq uipped to unload railway wagons, lorries, barg es or coastal craft, and to re-load

51

CHAPTER 4: THE GRAIN FAMILY from storage silos at high speed into ocean going vessels, usually by flexible spout. It is not unusual at some ports to load 30,000 tonnes of grain in a single working d ay, which serves both to illustrate the capacity of such equipment and the inf rastructure req uired to feed storage silos from the surrounding growing areas. Often the cargo will be loaded and trimmed at the expense of the shipper or charterer, the ship owner obtaining terms known as Free Load & Trim or Free Load & Spout-trim . Spout trim is not always sufficient, however. The onus is on owners to ensure that their vessel is safe when p utting to sea and they may be obliged by port authorities (eg: the Port Warden at Canadian ports) to fully trim cargo in holds before being allowed to sail. This is freq uently an expensive operation, necessitating the assistance of shore labour. In certain trades (eg: grains ex Australia) it is customary for ship owners to agree G ross terms meaning that they are responsible for the cost of loading and trimming the cargo. These costs can be consid erable, including overtime, stand-by labour time, anti pollution requirements and other items. It is vital therefore, that owners or traders contemplating such terms, first carefully investigate their liabilities (usually expressed as $ X per tonne) with local and reliable port agents, ensuring at the same time exactly what the stevedores quotation covers. This factor can thereafter be taken into consideratio n when negotiating the freight rate. Another factor to be taken into consideratio n when negotiating the f reight rate, and given the loading speed of which so many elevators are capable, is despatch money. If there is no congestion, vessels can often load considerably faster than the time allowed in their charter-p arty, leading to a sizeable sum of d espatch money payable to the charterers or shippers as a bo nus for sp eedy loading . Consequently, loading prospects should be carefully checked before fixing, enabling an allowance for despatch money to be built into any voyage estimate or costings exercise where this seems appropriate. Occasionally, vessels will be req uired to carry more than o ne grade of g rain. Often this division can be accommodated in the various compartments the ship has available, and the grades kept apart by what is known as natural hold separation , thus adequately preventing admixture of cargo. Depending on the quantities available for shipment however, and the cubic capacities of the ships holds or other cargo compartments, hold separation may require the cutting-out of some of the cargo. The ship s master, armed as he is with appropriate plans and knowledge of draft, trim and hull stress consideratio ns should be expected to give proper estimates of cargo intake. However, if time does not permit such consultatio n, traders/brokers sho uld p roceed with a degree of caution in their cargo-intake estimation. Where hold sep aration is impossible, either because of the cargo quantities involved or the capacities of the ship s holds, or both, separations may be necessary in the holds themselves, requiring a suitable clause to be drawn in to the charter-party/contract involved, spelling out the responsibilities of both parties. Separatio ns can take various forms but freq uently tarpaulins or plastic sheetings are used between layers of cargo. An especially sophisticated cargo sep aration is provided by that termed a Kobe stow or Kobe

52

CARGOES: WILLIAM V. PACKARD

sep aration . There are a numb er of variations but all are formed by a solid wooden floor
covering a lower parcel of grain which has been levelled . The basic Kob e stow is a simple in-hold separation formed by burlap sheeting covered by 4 x 8 plywood sheeting of to thickness laid end to end across the hold . A second layer of plywood sheeting is laid over the first tier overlapping by around 3 inches. The two layers of sheeting are then nailed together before a fresh p arcel of grain is load ed on top . If essential, plywood sheets at the sides of the hold can be cut to fit exactly between port and starboard f rames and stiffeners and fore and af t between bulkhead corrugations to red uce the risk still further of any admixture of the grades of prod uct. Stronger versions can b e constructed to withstand the weight of discharge machinery. Discharging methods vary widely, ranging from major ports with eq uip ment as sophisticated as at the loading end; to obsolete and p rimitive facilities at backward ports adjacent to famine areas that have been hurried into operatio n as emergency measures. Lightening overside into smaller craft is not unusual, given that certain importing areas lack deep water facilities sufficient to accommodate large ocean going vessels. Moreover, shallow-drafted local craft can be used to move essential food-supplies to regions of greatest need. Facilities in established ports of the main importing countries are often based on the p neumatic sucker system, althoug h others utilise mechanical unlo aders, perhaps of the b ucket elevator design. Certain of these major discharging ports specialise in tranship ment, and in such cases, feed er/conveyor belt systems may be used to transf er unload ed grain either into silos for storage, or directly to barges, railway wagons and/or trucks, or even into smaller, coastal ships for onward distributio n to nearby ports. A popular method of discharging grain in less developed areas is by means of portable suction machines vacuvators which can be wheeled into position on a ship s deck and used to suck grain through f lexible pipes from the holds and then overside and into silos or trucks: whilst yet another, alb eit time consuming method, is by grabs attached to ship s gear into deck positioned hoppers which in turn feed directly overside into road or rail vehicles, or coastal craft, or via silos to bagging machines. The most basic bulk grain discharging method, employed of necessity in certain parts, is by grab direct from ships hold to shore. This however, is a wasteful system, as it is almost impossible to avoid spillage, whilst at the same time creating unnecessary dust and contaminatio n hazards.

BAGGED GRAIN:
Certain ports and the infrastructure aro und them are not equipped to handle grains in b ulk, in which case the cargo must be carried in bags, perhaps throug hout the load ing operation, seaborne carriag e, discharge and distrib ution process. Grain in bags is traditio nally packed in 50 kilo bags (i.e: 20 bags to the tonne) which is therefore capable of being manhandled, lifted and moved in case of need by a reasonably fit labour force without mechanical assistance. Hessian (jute) once formed the majority of

53

CHAPTER 4: THE GRAIN FAMILY bagging material but in modern times it is probab le that polypropylene bags will b e utilised . It is helpf ul to establish when f irst contracting either the sales/purchase contract and/or the charter p arty whether the bags to be used will be new bags or re-used so that, if necessary, bills of lading can be draw n up and/or claused accordingly. Because of the risk of damage to bags especially if they are hand led roug hly during loading or discharging it is common practice for every ship to carry a number of empty bags as replacements for those w hich may become severely damaged say spare bags numbering 5% of the total b ags on board . That can be a substantial number of bags. 5% of 400,000 bags (sufficient for a 20,000 mts cargo) numbers no less than 20,000 spare, empty bags. In addition to the spare bags, need les and twine should be carried to facilitate rep airs by stevedores in situ in a vessels cargo compartments. Arrangements sho uld be made in sales contracts and in contracts of carriage for the cost of supply of spare, empty bags, which must also make allowance for additional time taken to load and discharge the empty bags and for their storage underdeck away from the risk of damage by bad weather and/or from seas washing over decks. The add itional weight of the empty bags may be small compared with the cargo weight but, nonetheless, most shipowners will expect to be paid freight on their weight. Similarly, it is important to establish whether freig ht and laytime is to be calculated on the gross weight of bags and contents, or on the nett weig ht of contents. Where bagging is not feasible in the loading area, throug h reaso ns of high cost or lack of facilities, there may well be means of bagging enroute, and in some trades it is not unknown for a ship to load bulk grain, to transport that cargo to a port where bagging facilities can be utilised, and then to discharge and reload the same grain in bags for onward carriage to a port of discharge. There was at one time, for example, such a trad e in Australian grain via Singapore, to the Middle East. Bagged grain increases the stowage factor of the product, as a rule of thumb ships carrying approximately 10% less bagged grain than in bulk. T hus, traders involved in bagging enro ute must calculate to load only 90% of a ships bulk capacity at the original lo ading port, although certain organisations skilled in bagging and restowing claim to achieve bagged quantities close to the b ulk figures. Generally bagged grain is more laborious to hand le than bulk, and more time consuming still to stow. In certain areas, Australia is an example, the labo ur cost of stowing bagged grain is considerable and thus a method known as rando m stow is popularly employed, whereby bags of grain are lowered into a ship s hold and not otherwise handled which, of course, tends to create broken stowage and worsen stowage capacity still further. Even today, there are discharging places where bulk grain may need to be bagged by hand in ships holds, a few bags at a time being hoisted ashore by rope sling, adding considerably to discharge time. Co nversely, grain can be p re-slung in groups of bags when loaded, leav ing the slings conveniently in place, to slip over hooks so as to expedite discharge operations.

54

CARGOES: WILLIAM V. PACKARD

It has become the p ractice on some trades for a ship carrying bulk grain from an export area beset with hig h labour costs to carry, in say one or two containers, its own complete portable b agging plant. Upon arrival at the port of discharge in, probably, a developing natio n, it is a relatively straightforward affair to hire and train on the spot inexpensive local labour and to sup ervise the construction of the bagging plant complete with hopper. T he bulk grain (or perhaps any other free flowing bulk commodity) can then b e discharged by grabs fitted to the vessels own cranes or derricks into the hopper which in turn feeds the bagging plant. Newly packed bags exiting the apparatus can then be man- handled aboard trucks or other forms of transport for delivery to the hinterland . Especially is this a convenient and usef ul means of speed ily delivering much needed aid-cargo to regions suffering famine and starvation. Modern portable bagging plants can ensure that each b ag contains a uniform weig ht of product and maximum o ut-turn p er unit comes close to 1,000 tonnes daily. There is no reason why a b ulk carrier f itted with efficient cranes and grabs cannot handle two or more bagging plants. However, given that a discharge rate of 1,000 tonnes daily will probably demand a minimum of 50 truck loads daily, two bagging plants will probably meet the shore side limitatio ns and requirements. Ancient trade as it is, grain in bags remains an essential and major part of seaborne trade, and will remain so as long as such cargoes need to be directed to poorer regions of the world whose folk are unable to equip themselves with sop histicated eq uipment, and which may have inadeq uate onward bulk transport facilities from their ports of discharge. Nonetheless, a further consideration with bagged cargo is the risk of damage to sacks during their handling, and thus the loss of valuable cargo through sp illage; together with the risk of pilferage thro ugh the stealing of sacks, or of their b eing miscounted at either o r both the loading and discharging ports. It is not unheard of for entire truck lo ads of bagged products to be stolen between being loaded ex ship and leaving the dock gates. To protect themselves against these risks, it behoves traders and ships officers alike to scrutinise the cargo handling performance of the stevedores, to ensure that proper methods of hand ling are employed, not for example, careless use of hooks which tear open b ags, and that efficient tallymen are employed to count b ags loaded or discharged . It sho uld b e borne in mind that for a cargo of, say, 25,000 tons in 50 kilo bags, some half million b ags will be used . It is easy therefore to make tallying mistakes at the load ing and/or discharge ends. Since cargo claims for shortage on delivery can be costly, easily concocted but difficult to defend ; offending parties such as inefficient shore labo ur must be placed o n written notice when such incidents occur, and if possible, the assistance of the vessels local P&I Club correspondent should be soug ht.

INFESTATION & FUMIGATION:

Grain is readily subject to inf estatio n f rom various insects. The common name for these insects used througho ut the ind ustry is weevils. However, there are many types of insects

55

CARGOES: WILLIAM V. PACKARD

STOWAGE FACTORS:
Stowage factors of grain vary widely, depending on origin; conditions d uring growth; the season of the year; and whether the crop is old or new. Consequently, informatio n in the following columns is merely a guide and no substitute fo r checking accurate stowage factors fro m local agents/shippers or for inserting appropriate figures in contracts of carriage. Stowage factors for grain also vary depending on w hether the carrying vessel is a single d ecker or a tweendecker. In the latter case an allowance of at least 5% extra space should be made. Bulk Cubft/mt
Barley (Australian) Barley (Northern Hemisphere) Beans Canola (see Rapeseed) Castor Beans/Seeds Castor Meal Pellets Chick Peas Corn Corn Gluten Feed Pellets Durrah Feed Wheat (Australia) Feed Wheat (N. America) Flaxseed (see Linseed) HSS Lentils Linseed Lupinseed Maize (see Corn) Malt Malt (Australian) Mustard Seed Oats Clipped Oats Unclipped Oilcakes (vary widely) Pellets (vary widely) Pollards Rapeseed Rapeseed Expellers & Pellets Rapeseed M eal Rice - Paddy (Rough) Rice - Brown (Clean) Rice - White (Polished) Ricebran Ricemeal Rye Safflowerseed Seedcak es (vary widely) Semolina 47/52 53/55 50/55 70/75 64/66 50/55 47/52 58/60 47/48 46/47 47/48 47/52 50/55 50/55 44/48 54/56 52/55 48/62 71/77 50/65 45/65 50/57 50/57 48/52 54/60 45/50 46/47 70/75 49/52 50/65 64/66

Cubm/mt
1.33/1.44 1.50/1.56 1.42/1.56 1.98/2.12 1.81/1.87 1.42/1.56 1.33/1.47 1.64/1.70 1.33/1.36 1.30/1.33 1.33/1.36 1.33/1.47 1.42/1.56 1.42/1.56 1.25/1.36 1.53/1.59 1.47/1.56 1.36/1.76 2.01/2.18 1.42/1.84 1.27/1.84 1.42/1.61 1.42/1.61 1.37/1.47 1.53/1.70 1.27/1.42 1.30/1.33 1.98/2.12 1.39/1.47 1.42/1.84 1.81/1.87

Bagged Cubft/mt
52/54 58/60 55/60 80/90 55/60 52/55

Cubm/mt
1.47/1.53 1.64/1.70 1.56/1.70 2.26/2.55 1.56/1.70 1.47/1.56

BC Code (App .)

B B

B&C

52/54 55/60 55/60

1.47/1.53 1.56/1.70 1.56/1.70

B&C

56/58 85/90 64/72 83/85 55/75 60/90 70/90 60/65

1.59/1.64 2.41/2.55 1.81/2.07 2.35/2.41 1.56/2.12 1.70/2.55 1.98/2.55 1.70/1.84

B&C B&C B&C B&C B&C B&C

64/67 53/55 50/52 82/86 64/67 53/55 55/75

1.81/1.90 1.50/1.56 1.42/1.47 2.32/2.43 1.81/1.90 1.50/1.56 1.56/2.12

B&C B&C B&C B&C

63

CHAPTER 4: THE GRAIN FAMILY Bulk Cubft/mt

Sesameseed Sorghums Soyabeans Soyabean Cak e (Chinese) Soyabean Meal Soyabean Meal (Spanis h & Chinese) Soyabean P ellets Sunflowerseed Sunflowerseed M eal Sunflowerseed Pellets Wheat Wheat Bran Wheat Bran P ellets Wheat Flour Wheat Middlings Wheat P ellets 44/49 48/52 58/60 64/66 55/60 85/90 62/65 44/49 70/110 59/61 51/55 58/70 53/60

Cubm/mt

Bagged Cubft/mt
55/70 52/55 55/58 64/66 64/66 70/75 65/70 59/61

Cubm/mt
1.56/2.12 1.47/1.56 1.56/1.64 1.81/1.87 1.81/1.87 1.98/2.12 1.84/1.98 1.67/1.73 1.33/1.47 2.26/3.40 1.44/1.67 2.26/2.55 1.70/1.98

BC Code (App .)

1.25/1.39 1.35/1.47 1.64/1.70 1.81/1.87 1.56/1.70 2.41/2.55 1.76/1.84 1.25/1.39 1.98/3.11 1.67/1.73 1.44/1.56 1.64/1.98 1.50/1.70

B&C B&C B&C B&C B&C B&C B&C

47/52 80/120 51/59 80/90 60/70

Ind ustry Bodies: - The Grain and Feed Trad e Associatio n GAFTA Ref erences: Internatio nal Code for the Safe Carriage of Grain in Bulk IMO Code of Saf e Practice for Solid Bulk Cargoes IMO

64