Optimization of Iron and Steel Products for Shipping

• Francisco J. Correa Ruiz ^[1] ; Víctor Fernández Álvarez ^[1] ; Francisco J. Lastra ^[1] ; Ernesto Madariaga ^[2] ; Luis Manuel Vega Antolín ^[1]
  1. [1] Universidad de Cantabria

     Universidad de Cantabria

     Santander, España

     
  2. [2] Naval Research Center (CINAV) of Naval Academy of Marinha Portuguesa, Alfeite, Almada, Portugal
• Localización: Proceedings of the 25th Pan-American Conference of Naval Engineering—COPINAVAL / coord. por Adán Vega Sáenz, Newton Narciso Pereira, Luis Carral Couce, Jose Angel Fraguela Formoso, 2019, ISBN 978-3-319-89812-4, págs. 57-66
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the sea traffic of steel products in 2016 was just behind the transport of grain for human consumption. According to the World Steel Association, for that year, 473 million tons of steel products were exported, 404 million of them by sea. Of this quantity, steel sections, angles, and shapes represent 25 million tons. We bring up here the solution for a real problem faced by an international steel products company with great importance in the worldwide steel market. Our experience shows us that the steel section transport, usually done by general cargo vessels, implies the charter of oversized vessels. Our solution is to minimize the cargo units’ total volume, in order to select the most suitable ship considering volume and cargo hold dimensions, in addition to her deadweight. In this way, we try to reduce the size of the chartered vessels noticeably. Therefore, we have developed an optimization software, described below, and have made a study of the fleet available. Doing this, we have found a new problem: the fleet offered is small in quantity and poorly adapted for the transport of these complex cargoes.