Volcanic eruptions may create a role for boxships
Posted on | May 17, 2010 | 1 Comment
You will have seen my recent brief announcement on www.claymaitland.com welcoming Dr. Hans Payer as a distinguished member of our blog team. He joins Michael Grey, Neville Smith, and Mark Warner who produces our website. They are extremely capable and I am very proud of them.
Hans Payer is also a consultant and adviser to myself, and I believe his appointment is a hugely topical and timely one for reasons that I will explain below.
Because of this, I would like to add a few more details about his career:
Hans is Austrian-born, and holds a Master of Science degree in naval architecture from the University of Vienna, and both Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in naval architecture and civil engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, which he attended as a Fulbright Scholar.
He received the David Taylor Medal from the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, SNAME, for outstanding contributions as a naval architect.
In 2004, he was awarded the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in recognition of his contribution to improving ship safety.
But it is Hans Payer’s work as an internationally-renowned naval architect, and his pioneering role in the development of containerships, that I believe is of great significance to us, including his unrivalled track record as contributor to the creation of the very large transoceanic containerships.
You will understand why I am saying this when I remind you that volcanic ash from the Icelandic volcanic eruption alone is increasingly disrupting the supply of airfreight in many countries in Europe, including the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Switzerland and Portugal. Many products are unable to reach their markets. It is also causing transatlantic airfreight to suffer long and expensive detours and delays.
All this disruption is being caused by just this ONE volcano, which shows every sign of becoming more volatile, and continuing to erupt indefinitely into the future.
It appears that we are now in a time of increasing volcanic and earthquake activity. When you consider the many other active volcanoes around the globe, and the possibility of currently dormant ones erupting, you can appreciate that world airfreight transport can be heavily disrupted.
With their speed and excellent sea-keeping qualities, containerships have been benefiting from this situation as they are increasingly perceived as an alternative to air freight.
Indeed, containerships have become an integral part of modern world trade because of their reliability. More and more of these ships are acting as floating warehouses carrying vital components for manufacturing plants and retail outlets that carry little stock of their own, and rely on just-in-time deliveries. They are now sought after for the transportation of high-value fresh produce such as fruit, vegetables and flowers. These products are carried in refrigerated containers for a variety of retail outlets, including supermarkets.
In this way, containerships make a vital contribution to local, national and international prosperity.
Through our website, Hans will be able to keep you up-to-date on containership development and technology, and the progress of this mode of transport. He will actively take part in dialogue and debate with our rapidly-growing online community of globally-based shipping and shipping-related participants.
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May 24th, 2010 @ 3:59 am
Very Interesting Blog! Thank You For This Information!