b'8American Journal of Transportation ajot.comBulk shipping at the very bottom as carrier earnings plungeVesselscarryingdrybulkcommoditiesore cargoes from Brazil and Australia due to are struggling to make a profit because of theweather disruptions. Last year, a dam disaster double hit of lower seasonal demand for car- at iron ore producer Vale SA lowered exports.goes and the Covid-19 pandemic thats wreck- We are now in uncharted territory because ing trade and industrial activity worldwide. itsimpossibletounderstand,ortogauge, Were really at the very bottom for drywhenvariouslockdownsmeasuresaregoing bulk, William Fairclough, managing directorto be lifted in different countries, or the impact aaL melbourne recently loaded two cranes and their components weighingof Wah Kwong Maritime Transport Holdingsof a potential second-wave of infection, said just over 1,800 mt in total in Taicang for onward transport to jebel ali. Ltd., one of Hong Kongs largest independentFairclough.Forbulkshippingratestoseea ship owners, said in an interview. sustained recovery, the India market needs to AAL delivers 1,800mt ofShipments out of Brazil, one of the dry bulkreturn, and higher iron-ore volumes from Brazil markets main shippers, continue to be low, andto China also are needed, he said.giant jib cranes to Dubai global supply chains are being upended by theBulkshippingaccountsforabout40% virus, he said. The entire dry bulk carrier sec- ofthecompanysrevenue,withthebalance TheAALMelbourneof situation where engineeringtors earnings are basically nothing. coming from the tanker market, which has seen recentlyloadedtwocranesprecision resonates most. HadTheBalticExchangeCapesizeIndex,aa big surge. Both sectors tend to move in oppo-and their components weigh- wenotplannedsocarefullymeasure of freight rates for bulk cargoes fromsite directions, which safeguards the companys ing just over 1,800 mt in totalfor the potential risks involvedcoal-to-iron ore, has tumbled this year, with aearnings. Wah Kwong currently owns 19 vessels in Taicang, for onward trans- andmatchedtheseperfectlyshort rebound in April petering out. The Balticwith an additional five vessels under construction porttoJebelAli.The42magainst the capabilities of theDry Index, a broader gauge of vessel demand,across bulk carriers and crude oil sectors.highmainmodulestoweredvessel and skill of the crew,plunged last week to the lowest since 2016. Faircloughexpectsagradualimprove-overthe31,000dwtmega- thesafetyandtimingoftheThe virus is an additional blow to a marketment for rates in the second-half after a wave of size vessel and, lit up in theentireoperationcouldhavealready in pain. The early months of the yeargovernment stimulus packages and and as eco-evening,took-onanimpos- been compromised. are seasonally weak, and there were fewer ironnomic and industrial activity in China recovers. ing resemblance to two Mar-tian tripods from H.G. Wells War of the Worlds.Manufactured in China by global supplier of heavy lift-ingandhandlingequipment, NantongRainbowHeavy Machineries Co. ltd., the two jibcraneswereloadedby themega-sizeA-ClassHL MPV,theAALMelbourne inTaicang.Theywerethen dischargedinJebelAli,for deployment at the DP Worlds Shipyard in Dubaithe larg-est facility of its kind in the MiddleEast,whichhandles anapproximate350vessels a year, mostly ultra and very large crude carriers.Jack Zhou, General Man-agerofAALChinathe office responsible for booking thecargosaid,Thecrane componentscomprisedjust under20bigunits,thelarg-estofwhichweighedover 550mtandmeasuring115m long. Some we loaded from the wharf and others from a float-ingbarge. Theywerestowed both in under-deck holds and on the weather deck. Added to this,wereceivedunexpected lastminuteinstructionsand changesfromthecharterer, butwereabletosafelycom-plete loading to a very tight and unmovable loading deadline.Nicola Pacifico, head of AALTransportEngineeringthe function responsible for planningtheloading,stow-age and discharge operations explained,Evenwitha vesselproviding40,000cbm stowage capacity, space was extremely tight on this proj-ect. The two main structures had to be secured on specially laid rails. One of these came to within 20 cm of our own shipscrane.Thisisvery close,asdecksarerarely even and such tolerances are unusual.Ifatanypointwe thought they might touch we would have had to discharge the structure, move the rails and reload again.He added, This is the type'