I can tell how the salt business goes. The salt companies rent space on the various docks. The State of MI takes bids on salt for lots of municipalities. The price is FOB the municipality. I work for a road commission large enough to bid about 100,000 tons including some cities in the county. Our salt gets delivered to the dock, we order from the salt company who has the dock deliver to us.
Stone is handled differently. The dock's have the stone. The docks bid our stone projects. We pay the dock for the material and the dock trucks it as part of the price.
Customer needs and locations driving ship design?
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Raildudes dad
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Customer needs and locations driving ship design?
With the discussion regarding bow mounted unloading gear on new builds, I have some questions.
Does a customer (say, a municipality) contract with a supplier for the supplier’s goods to be delivered? Rock salt for winter use, let’s say.
Does the municipality contact a shipping company to deliver the salt? Do they use a third party logistics broker? Could the actual salt supplier also handle that part of the transaction?
It is also interesting to note that customer needs, customer ports, and customer cargos seem to have played a role in steering shipping companies into these newer laker designs. Years ago it seemed self unloaders were designed to be as large as possible to suit the needs of the steel industry, and slightly less, coal. Other cargos to other ports via self unloaders seemed to be an afterthought, or sideline for the shipping companies, often dictated by how large a boat could be accommodated at the dock. Both Algoma Central and now Interlake seem to be positioning to supply municipalities and industry with smaller loads in more challenging port situations, such as inadequate dredging, smaller depths, etc.
Does a customer (say, a municipality) contract with a supplier for the supplier’s goods to be delivered? Rock salt for winter use, let’s say.
Does the municipality contact a shipping company to deliver the salt? Do they use a third party logistics broker? Could the actual salt supplier also handle that part of the transaction?
It is also interesting to note that customer needs, customer ports, and customer cargos seem to have played a role in steering shipping companies into these newer laker designs. Years ago it seemed self unloaders were designed to be as large as possible to suit the needs of the steel industry, and slightly less, coal. Other cargos to other ports via self unloaders seemed to be an afterthought, or sideline for the shipping companies, often dictated by how large a boat could be accommodated at the dock. Both Algoma Central and now Interlake seem to be positioning to supply municipalities and industry with smaller loads in more challenging port situations, such as inadequate dredging, smaller depths, etc.