Bulk cargo is

commodity In economics, a commodity is an economic good, usually a resource, that has full or substantial fungibility: that is, the market treats instances of the good as equivalent or nearly so with no regard to who produced them. The price of a co ...

cargo Cargo consists of bulk goods conveyed by water, air, or land. In economics, freight is cargo that is transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. ''Cargo'' was originally a shipload but now covers all types of freight, including trans ...

that is transported unpackaged in large quantities.

Description

Bulk cargo refers to material in either liquid or granular, particulate form, as a mass of relatively small solids, such as petroleum/ crude oil, grain,

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dead ...

, or

gravel Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gravel is classifi ...

. This cargo is usually dropped or poured, with a spout or shovel bucket, into a

bulk carrier A bulk carrier or bulker is a merchant ship specially designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo — such as grains, coal, ore, steel coils, and cement — in its cargo holds. Since the first specialized bulk carrier was built in 1852, econom ...

ship's hold, railroad car/ railway wagon, or tanker truck/ trailer/ semi-trailer body. Smaller quantities can be

box A box ( plural: boxes) is a container used for the storage or transportation of its contents. Most boxes have flat, parallel, rectangular sides. Boxes can be very small (like a matchbox) or very large (like a shipping box for furniture), and ...

ed (or drummed) and palletised; cargo packaged in this manner is referred to as

breakbulk cargo In shipping, break-bulk, breakbulk, or break bulk cargo, also called general cargo, refers to goods that are stowed on board ship in individually counted units. Traditionally, the large numbers of items are recorded on distinct bills of lading ...

. Bulk cargo is classified as liquid or dry. The Baltic Exchange is based in London and provides a range of indices benchmarking the cost of moving bulk commodities, dry and wet, along popular routes around the seas. Some of these indices are also used to settle Freight Futures, known as FFA's. The most famous of the Baltic indices is the Baltic Dry Indices, commonly called the BDI. This is a derived function of the Baltic Capesize index (BCI), Baltic Panamax index (BPI), Baltic Supramax index (BSI) and the Baltic Handysize index (BHSI). The BDI has been used as a

bellwether A bellwether is a leader or an indicator of trends.bellwether
" ''Cambridge Dictionary''. Ret ...

for the global economy as it can be interpreted as an indicator of an increase or decrease in the amount of raw commodities countries are importing/exporting.

Dry bulk

Dry bulk refers to any cargo which is carried in bulk in solid form. Such carriage is often referred to as the "dry" trades. They would include: LightningVolt Iron Ore Pellets

Bauxite Bauxite is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminium content. It is the world's main source of aluminium and gallium. Bauxite consists mostly of the aluminium minerals gibbsite (Al(OH)3), boehmite (γ-AlO(OH)) and diaspore (α-AlO(OH ...

* Bulk

minerals In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. ...

( sand &

, copper, limestone, salt, etc.) *

Cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mi ...

s *

Chemicals A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., with ...

( fertilizer, plastic granules & pellets, resin

powder A powder is a dry, bulk solid composed of many very fine particles that may flow freely when shaken or tilted. Powders are a special sub-class of granular materials, although the terms ''powder'' and '' granular'' are sometimes used to disti ...

, synthetic fiber, etc.) * Coals and cokes * Agricultural products such as dry edibles (for

animal Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and go through an ontogenetic stage in ...

s or humans:

alfalfa Alfalfa () (''Medicago sativa''), also called lucerne, is a perennial flowering plant in the legume family Fabaceae. It is cultivated as an important forage crop in many countries around the world. It is used for grazing, hay, and silage, as we ...

pellets, citrus pellets, livestock feed, flour, peanuts, raw or

refined sugar White sugar, also called table sugar, granulated sugar, or regular sugar, is a commonly used type of sugar, made either of beet sugar or cane sugar, which has undergone a refining process. Description The refining process completely removes t ...

, seeds, starches, etc.) *

Grains A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...

( wheat, maize, rice, barley,

oat The oat (''Avena sativa''), sometimes called the common oat, is a species of cereal grain grown for its seed, which is known by the same name (usually in the plural, unlike other cereals and pseudocereals). While oats are suitable for human con ...

rye Rye (''Secale cereale'') is a grass grown extensively as a grain, a cover crop and a forage crop. It is a member of the wheat tribe (Triticeae) and is closely related to both wheat (''Triticum'') and barley (genus ''Hordeum''). Rye grain is u ...

, sorghum, soybeans, etc.) * Iron (

ferrous In chemistry, the adjective Ferrous indicates a compound that contains iron(II), meaning iron in its +2 oxidation state, possibly as the divalent cation Fe2+. It is opposed to "ferric" or iron(III), meaning iron in its +3 oxidation state, such a ...

& non-ferrous

ores Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically containing metals, that can be mined, treated and sold at a profit.Encyclopædia Britannica. "Ore". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 7 April ...

ferroalloy Ferroalloy refers to various alloys of iron with a high proportion of one or more other elements such as manganese (Mn), aluminium (Al), or silicon (Si). They are used in the production of steels and alloys. The alloys impart distinctive qualitie ...

s, pig iron, scrap metal, pelletized taconite), etc. *

Wood chips Woodchips are small- to medium-sized pieces of wood formed by cutting or chipping larger pieces of wood such as trees, branches, logging residues, stumps, roots, and wood waste. Woodchips may be used as a biomass solid fuel and are raw material ...

Liquid bulk cargo

Liquid bulk cargo includes any cargo carried in closed tanks and poured or pumped into the carrying vessel. This would include: * Hazardous chemicals in liquid form * Petroleum * Gasoline * Liquefied natural gas (LNG) *

Liquid nitrogen Liquid nitrogen—LN2—is nitrogen in a liquid state at low temperature. Liquid nitrogen has a boiling point of about . It is produced industrially by fractional distillation of liquid air. It is a colorless, low viscosity liquid that is wide ...

Cooking oil Cooking oil is plant, animal, or synthetic liquid fat used in frying, baking, and other types of cooking. It is also used in food preparation and flavoring not involving heat, such as salad dressings and bread dips, and may be called edible oil ...

* Fruit juices * Rubber * Vegetable oil

Gallery

File:BFIX 520 20050716 Illinois Railway Museum.JPG, A milk tank car for bulk loading. Image:LO DME 49328.jpg, DME 49328, a

covered hopper A covered hopper is a self-clearing enclosed railroad freight car with fixed roof, sides, and ends with openings for loading through the roof and bottom openings for unloading. Covered hopper cars are designed for carrying dry bulk loads, varying ...

owned and operated by the

Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad The Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad is a wholly owned U.S. subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Before its purchase, it was the largest Class II railroad in the United States, operating across South Dakota and southern Minnesota in ...

Image:Heyl_&_Patterson_Rotary_Railcar_Dumper.jpg, A rotary car dumper Image:Schüttgutbeladung eines Feederschiffs mit Rapsschrot.jpg, Bulk loading of a

feeder ship Feeder vessels or feeder ships are medium-size freight ships. In general, a feeder designates a seagoing vessel with an average capacity of . Feeders collect shipping containers from different ports and transport them to central container terminals ...

with rapeseed meal File:Gabarit AAR Plate-C.png

Large ports specializing in bulk cargo

* Port of Port Hedland, Australia * Port of Rotterdam *

Port of Vancouver The Port of Vancouver is the largest port in Canada and the fourth largest in North America by tonnes of cargo, facilitating trade between Canada and more than 170 world economies. The port is managed by the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, whic ...

* Port of Liverpool * Port of Tyne *

Port of Amsterdam The port of Amsterdam ( nl, Haven van Amsterdam) is a seaport in Amsterdam in North Holland, Netherlands. It is the 4th busiest port in Europe by metric tonnes of cargo. The port is located on the bank of a former bay named the IJ and the N ...

* Port of Hamilton (Canada)

Bibliography

* * * * *

References

{{Authority control Bulk material handling