Re: Shore side unloading

From: Russ
Location: Las Vegas
email: COGIT8R@aol.com
Remote Name: 207.200.116.132
Date: 10.27.06
Time: 11:37:08 PM

Comments

The Ryerson is a unique situation. 1. There was a need for more pellets to be delivered and the Ryerson was the only idle hull. 2. The Ryerson was a Mittal boat. If Mittal had to contract out the work to another company, the cost would have been higher and may or may not have been economical. Having said that, the Ryerson is likely showing a profit (Mittal didn't become an industry leader by losing money). IF it costs $2000/day to operate (a guess), she completes a round trip in 8 days, and carries 25000 tons at $5/ton (probably a low guess), the Ryerson is showing a gross profit of something like $100,000 per trip. A self unloader with a slightly smaller capacity would also show a gross profit of around $100,000 per trip - but completes a round trip in only six days (i.e., the self unloader makes more trips in a season). Its not that operating a straight decker is not profitable but that companies can generate a bigger profit with a self unloader. If you convertallthe self unloaders to straight deckers, the situation only gets worse. If it takes 36 - 48 hours to unload the Ryerson, how long would it take to unload a thousand footer? Also, if it takes 2 days or longer to unload a boat, others will get backed up waiting to unload. This will increase the length of a trip and reduce the profits per trip. Its all about the money and a self unloader will generate more profit per trip than a straight decker.