Unit 4 water transport

R eading

Task 1: Read, translate and render the text.

Text 1

Both rail and road transport have the obvious limitation of only being used on land. Most supply chains use shipping to cross the -oceans at some point, and over 90% оf world trade is moved by sea. You can see the importance of shipping to a country like the UK, where 95% of freight arrives or leaves by ship, shipping is the fifth largest service sector exporter, the City of London insures 25% of the world's marine risk. The marine and repair business is one of the largest in Europe. There are 300 ports around the coast, and the surrounding waters are among the busiest in the world.

There are basically three types of water transport - rivers and canals (usually called inland waterways), coastal shipping (moving materials from one port to another along the coast) and ocean transport (across the major seas). Many countries have well-developed river and canal transport, such as Canadian and US use of the St Lawrence Seaway, and European use of the Rhine. We normally associate river transport with smaller loads, perhaps narrow boats and barges. But river systems can carry ocean-going ships for surprisingly long distances.

Realistically, though, most shipping is done by large vessels traveling through the world's shipping lanes. Some countries are fortunate enough to have a coastline that can be used for international transport, and cities such as Rotterdam, Hong Kong and New York have developed huge ports.

Some form of shipping is largely unavoidable for long journeys. There are many different types of vessel for various cargoes. Ships get considerable economies of scale, so many aim at moving big loads at low unit costs.

• General cargo ships are the standard design, with large holds that carry any type of cargo. Most of these are loaded by crane, although some have side doors that allow vehicles to drive on and off. Many ports around the world do not have facilities to handle the more specialised ships mentioned below, so these general-purpose vessels are very widely used.

• Bulk carriers carry large qualities of cheap bulk materials in large holds, such as grain or ores.

• Tankers carry any liquid, but by far the biggest movements are oil. Because of the economies of scale, these ships are built as big as possible.

• Container ships are specially designed to carry standard containers and their capacity is commonly rated in TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) or FEUs (40-foot equivalent units). A typical container ship carries around 5000 of these, with larger ones carrying 10,000.

• Ferries are usually RO-RO (roll-on roll-off) vessels that carry road vehicles over relatively short distances. There are, however, longer RO-RO routes between, say, Europe and America.

• Barges, which are towed behind ocean-going tugs. These are used for shorter routes where sea conditions are fairly reliable. They have the advantage of being cheaper to run than normal ships.

• Combination ships. In addition to the specialised ships, many other designs are used, often to allow for dominant patterns of trade. Examples of such combination ships are the RO-RO/container ships that carry vehicles imported into the USA and return with bulk grain to Japan, and the oil-bulk vessels that carry oil from the Middle East and return carrying ores. One useful combination is passenger/container, as the passengers are ensured priority treatment in ports.

The main drawback with water transport is, of course, its inflexibility in being limited to appropriate ports. Journeys from suppliers and to customers inevitably need a change of mode, even if they are close to ports. The other problem with shipping is that it is relatively slow, and needs time to consolidate loads and transfer them at ports. However, such transfers can be made efficient, and then coastal shipping can compete with road transport, even for relatively short distances.

Task 2: Re-read the text and say if the statements below are true of false. Correct the false statements.

1. Most supply chains use shipping to cross the oceans at some points but only 50 % of word trade is moved by sea.

2. The marine and repair business is one of the smallest in Europe.

3. Most shipping is done by small vessels traveling through the world’s shipping lanes.

4. Tankers carry cheap bulk materials.

Task 3: a) Read the text and find 2 or 3 sentences that express the main idea.