A bulk carrier is a merchant ship used to transport bulk cargo or unpacked cargo which is usually dropped, poured or shovelled in or out of the cargo holds. Since 1852, when the first bulk carrier was built till now, market has seen a vast increase in development and production of bulk carriers with required modifications in capacity and efficiency.

The bulk carrier is responsible for the cargo, navigation and moreover has to maintain the ship, machinery, equipment etc. Usually the bulk cargo is dangerous, corrosive and difficult to manage. Bulk carriers now forming about forty percentage of merchant fleet are now available in various specialised designs where some can load and upload cargo easily with their own facilities while some have to depend on port facilities. It is to be seen that majority of bulk carriers belongs to Japan, China and Greece and Japan is recorded to be the largest single builder of bulk carrier.

History of Bulk Carriers

History states the methods which were used to transport the cargo. At first, the dock men used to stack the goods filled sacks on the pallets and which were later taken on to cargo holds with the help of a crane at the same time the second method followed the process of hiring ship and using the whole time and money to construct plywood bins in the cargo holds and to shift the cargo using wooden boards which was tedious turning it to be labour intensive. But soon specialised bulk carriers in the form of steam ships and the first of such kind was the SS John Bowes' British Coal Carrier in 1852 which had metal hull, steam engine and ballasting system as features. Post World War II, the market for bulk carrier trade took a sudden leap that it became more on demand as a result of increasing industrialized nations especially in Europe. Bulkers are of different varieties and are termed differently. It can be listed thus:

• Small
• Handysize
• Handymax
• Panamax
• Capesize
• Very large
• Kamsarmax
• Setouchmax
• Dunkrikmax
• Newcastlemax
• Mini bulkers

General Bulk Carrier Types

Apart from these, the general bulk carrier types include Geared Bulk Carriers, Combined Carriers, Gearless Carriers, Selfdischargers, Lakers and Bulk In, Bags Out (BIBO). The geared bulk carriers belong to the handysize to handymax size which corresponds to 71% of all bulk carriers with over 10,000 DWT and with the biggest growth rate. They can own their own as there are well equipped with cranes, derricks etc for easy transport of cargo in and out of the ships unlike gearless ones which lack the facilities of cargo equipment and have to depend on the port facilities. While the combined carriers since 1970's carry both liquid and dry bulk cargoes in separate holds.

Self discharger is another form of bulker helps in the easy transport of cargo with the help of conveyor belt which is fitted over vessel's hatch facilitating easy movement of the cargoes. Lakers named after its major use on Great Lakes with its forward house helping in the transfer of goods. Finally BIBO, Bulk In, Bags Out bulkers are facilitated with the efficiency of bagging cargo as its unloaded helping to unload tonnes of cargo fastly with ease.