Large Ships: Emma Mærsk & Knock Nevis.

The rising cost of oil will make these ships bigger not smaller. The Emma Maersk is so efficent that she will bring the cost of transporting containers down by around 30%. This means in real terms that a 40′ container can now be shipped from China to Europe for around US$160. It costs more than that to ship a container on a truck just 80 miles. The real threat to the environment is consummers buying cheap crap, such as christmas crackers with useless plastic shapes inside. Maersk has a further 7 ships of this size on order and it is likely that the later ships will be bigger still. Currently the largest predicted size will be 18,000 TEU! Officially Emma is an 11,000 TEU ship, but many experts predict that she is actually cpable of carrying 14,500 TEU. Maersk is notorious for under reporting of their shipping capacity. Most marine experts had predicted that it would be 2020 before ships reached the 18,000 TEU, however based on some research I have done, I predict we will see 18,000 TEU ships by 2010. since all the technical difficulties such as engines and propellar effiecency have now been overcome. The really big question is will we ever see anything greater than 18,000 TEU or post Malacca-Max as they will be known!

Size comparison of the Knock Nevis to other man-made structures and vehicles:

http://www.boatoperatorcard.ca/resources/knock-nevis-super-tankers.asp x