Research On A Company Iron Ore Transhipment And Logistic Project Scheme Design

The thesis carried out a study on the bottleneck problem existing in the port logistics encountered by a large steel company in their iron ore project in Port Pepel.Due to the limitations of the terminal size and channel draft of Port Pepel, vessels of 180,000 DWT (Capesize) and above cannot berth alongside the terminal directly, thus the loading operation can only be completed in the estuary anchorage of Sierra Leone through pre-carriage transshipments. The paper aims to come up with a reliable,efficient and cost-cutting scheme of logistics and transport for the project, ensuring the company to complete its task of outputting 18 million tons of iron ore under the premise of maintaining the basic situation of the existing terminal and the channel in Port Pepel.The paper analyzes the local meteorological and hydrological data of Pepel port,including wind, wave, surge, synthetic wave, precipitation, ocean current, port facility condition, channel water depth, navigation sign and port auxiliary facilities. And taking into consideration of the local laws and regulations of Sierra Leone, the paper conducts a full comparative analysis of the existing mode of transport, including the existing transshipment vessels in Port Pepel, the transshipment vessels of Vale in Subic Bay,the transshipment facilities transformed from old vessels and the transshipment platforms, etc. After analyzing the strengths and weakness of each mode,the paper decides to adopt the mode of transshipment platform. The transshipment platform does not have the function of cargo transportation, thus needs to be configured with pre-carriage transshipment accordingly. By analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of towing barges, pusher barges and self-propelled barges, the paper decides to use self-propelled barges as the transport method of pre-carriages. The paper uses the theory of project investment management to fully demonstrate the economic feasibility of the projects, and lists the investment costs and operation costs of the logistics scheme and analyzed the return on investment of the project; And the paper conducts a sensitivity analysis on the variable costs in the project operation and management, including the costs of bunker, human and tax, etc.In the end, the paper summarizes and evaluates the potential risks of the projects,including geopolitical risks, the contractual capacity of the steel company, operation and management risks and risks of overly hydrated cargo, etc., and puts forward preventive and emergency measures for each aspect.In the shipping market there are very few shipowners engaged in the same transshipment logistics project. In view of the current status of researches on the transshipment logistics, there are relatively more studies on the transshipment logistics in the Yangtze River Basin, while researches on the transshipment logistics at load ports abroad are relatively less. The paper, through the feasibility study of the transshipment logistics scheme of the Sierra Leone iron ore in Port Pepel, provides significant practical reference for the implementation of the similar projects.