W Sky – Ship of the Week Sep 28, 2017 | West Pacific Marine

28 Sep 2017 Ship of the Week 54

Here in Vancouver to load coal at Westshore Terminals, Roberts Bank, this week was the post-Panama bulk carrier W-Sky, managed by W Marine Inc based in Athens.

Built by Catic Shipbuilding, Taizhou, Jiangsu, PRC
Owned and managed by W Marine, Athens
Delivered in 2011
LOA 229.2
Beam 38.0m
GRT 51,239 tons
DWT 92,929 MT
Main engine : MAN-B&W 6S60MC-C, BHP 18.436, Kw 13.560,
Service Speed: 14 knots

Established in 2003, W Marine Inc. manages a fleet of six bulk carriers in the Panamax, Kamsarmax and Post-Panamax sectors. By way of interest, the evolution of the “Kamsarmax” with a deadweight of around 82,000 MT and LOA 229m is on account of being the largest size of vessel that can be accommodated at the world’s largest bauxite port, namely Port Kamsar in Equatorial Guinea.

Export coal volumes through the Port of Vancouver (Westshore and Neptune Terminals) staged something of a recovery in the first half of 2017 with a 7% increase over the same period of 2016. Metallurgical coal volumes were slightly down at 12.3 million tonnes but still representing the fifth consecutive year of metallurgical coal export volumes reaching more than 12 million tonnes at the mid-year point. On the other hand, thermal coal volumes were up by 43% over the same period of 2016 due to a partial recovery in demand but volumes were still down by 18% when compared with the previous record. While still a very long way from the record volumes of 2012, year to date export coal through Prince Rupert’s Ridley Terminals International have more than doubled over those of 2016 with 4.7 million tonnes having been shipped including over a million tonnes of petroleum coke.

Australia is the world’s largest coal exporter employing 58,000 people and accounting for 35% of all global coal exports. However, despite being the world’s largest exporter, coal is still only Australia’s second largest export, after iron ore.

Search

+