Introduction

The demand for raw materials continues to sustain a major sector of the shipping industry. Bulk products are shipped all over the world from their point of origin to that position of demand. The bulkers transport everything from grain and coal to chemicals and iron ore. The bulk trades involve vast tonnage movement of any one commodity and such movement can present its own hazards and problems associated with the cargo.

Designs of ship's holds have evolved to maximize capacity while at the same time generating a safer method of carriage. The Maritime Safety Committee of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has adopted amendments to Chapter XII Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) (Additional Safety Measures for Bulk Carriers) which came into force in July 2004, affecting all bulk carriers regardless of their date of construction. These amendments include the fitting of dry space, water level detectors and alarm monitors, as well as means of draining and pumping, and dry space bilges located forward of the collision bulkhead .

Further recommendations for bulk carriers over 150 m in length to require double-hulls has been agreed (but not yet ratified). Effectively, the doublehull, bulk carrier would seem to be the future for bulk cargoes. How these cargoes are loaded, managed and discharged in the types of vessels involved is as follows.