World Trade - April 2009 - (Page 37) Planning software is used to optimize the loading and stowage of containers. Esposito estimated that about 70 percent of the cargo the MSC Marina would leave Charleston the following morning was bound for Antwerp, where at least 60 percent of that would be off-loaded for transport by rail and barge to other ports and to inland facilities as far away as Russia. “In all, we have nine rows of containers stacked below deck, seven up on top,” he said. The MSC Marina sails with a crew of 23, with almost as many nationalities on board as there are people. “We have Italians, Eastern Europeans, Croats, Indonesians, Samoans. We have employment offices in Today, we called on two ports in one day,” he said. “We Hong Kong, Italy and Greece, just about every corner of did 217 container moves in Savannah before leaving at 4 the world,” Esposito said. a.m. to come here. We’ll do another 420 container moves While at sea, each man on board has a specified set here and then we’ll be on our way again.” of tasks, Esposito said. Some of the crew was assigned Prior to departing from to perform the overall mainteAntwerp on a cargo run, Esposito nance of the vessel, others work received a loading plan from a ship in the engine room tending to a In this economy, agent at MSC, telling him what 77,000-horse-power engine that cargo was being loaded and where encompasses four stories at the you are constantly it will be stowed on the vessel for back of the vessel, and others the most efficient passage. cook or do the wash. weighing the cost of Typically, the captain concerns As for the captain, internahimself little with the specifics, running of ship with the tional regulations restrict him delegating the implementation of and anyone who works on deck the stowage plan to another of the amount you must earn. to working eight hours a day on ship’s officers, Fedelini said. a split schedule: four hours on, “The captain always knows if eight off. dangerous cargo is being loaded “While rest is mandated, I aboard his vessel, but beyond that, his main concern is can tell you there’s never a single day that I have absothe safe operation of his ship,” Fedelini said. lutely nothing to do,” Esposito said. “Besides operating “You see, my job is this,” Esposito chimed in. “Even the ship at sea, as captain you do an amazing amount if you handle a container a thousand times, so long as it of paperwork. And, of course, you’re constantly comreaches its destination in a good manner, a safe manner, municating with people on land, telling them where you then you’re giving the clients what they want.” are and when you think you’ll arrive at your next destiThe cargo manifest was entered into a computer that nation.” had a software system specifically designed to make handling cargo easier and more efficient. Every container on Port provides some relief the vessel’s manifest was assigned an address denoting in The main reason port costs for shipping lines remain so which bay, row and column it was located. The software stable, crisis or no, is that they’re locked into contracts also color-coded the containers on the screen, so that extending out two, three or five years. Volume isn’t the with the click of a mouse, the captain and crew could main consideration, once the ink is on the contract; it’s the calendar that matters. quickly see where the box was going. But that’s not to say that ports have not been responOn this given night, for instance, cargo bound for Antwerp from the United States was stowed below deck sive to the unique situation into which the global econand color-coded brown; cargo destined for Hamburg, omy has cast the shipping industry. For instance, Fedelini noted—and lauded—a decision meanwhile, was color-coded light green. WWW.WORLDTRADEMAG.COM 37 http://WWW.WORLDTRADEMAG.COM
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