Dry bulk cargo handling in Perlis port

1.1 Definition of dry bulk cargo

According to Oxford dictionary, bulk is defined as the mass or size of
something large. Cargo is goods carried on a ship or aircraft or motor vehicle.
Therefore, dry bulk cargo is defined as a category of cargo stowed in bulk
such as coal, grain, ore and others. Bulk cargo is commodity cargo that is
transported unpackaged in large quantities. This cargo is usually dropped or
poured, with a spout or shovel bucket, into a bulk carrier ships hold. The
examples of dry bulk cargo are bauxite, bulk minerals (sand and gravel,
copper, limestone, salt) , cement, coal, grain (wheat, rice, barley) , wood
chips and iron.

1.2 Dry bulk cargo handling equipment

So far as dry bulk cargoes are concerned, handling facilities may be in
the form
of power-propelled conveyor belts, usually fed at the landward end by a
hopper (a
very large container on legs) or grabs, which may be magnetic for handling
ores,
fixed to a high capacity travel1ing crane or travel1ing gantries. These
gantries
move not only parallel to the quay, but also run back for considerable
distances,
and so cover a large stacking area, and are able to plumb the ship's hold.
These

two types of equipment are suitable for handling coal and ores. In the case of
bulk
sugar or when the grab is also used, the sugar would be discharged into a
hopper.

Graphic 1: grab type unloaders

Graphic 2: Hopper

1.3 The importance of dry bulk terminal

In 2012, the international seaborne trade for dry bulk cargo continued
to grow: an overall growth of 5.7 percent, within which was a 7.2 percent
increase rate for major bulks. Unlike other types of terminals (e.g. container
terminals, general cargo terminals), for dry bulk terminals it is important to
distinguish if they are export or import terminals. Because of the differences
in objectives (i.e. export or import dry bulks), an export bulk terminal is
designed rather differently from an import bulk terminal. Export terminals
are often located closer to the sources of bulk materials (e.g. sugar); they
focus on facilitating the outgoing flows of material, determined by the
availability and characteristics of inland transportation. Sometimes export
terminals have to keep a large (still unsold) stock, to support pricing in
material trade. In many cases export terminals handle a limited number of
material types, due to their location or ownership (terminals owned by

traders/mining companies). In general, import terminals need to match

services both to the waterside and landside modalities; this is a challenge
especially when such services must be offered simultaneously. In many cases
import terminals face a stochastic arrival of vessels, and the landside
services and inland modalities are selected by the consignee and thus are
difficult for the terminal to plan. Unlike export terminals, import terminals
usually handle multiple types and/or grades of bulk materials; hence the
resulting complexity of waterside and landside services will be even larger.

1.4 Bulk cargo handling in Perlis port

As we all know, Perlis is the largest producer of sugar in Malaysia. So,
the main bulk cargo is sugar. Sugar from Perlis can be imported to the all
states in Malaysia and other countries. Besides that, Perlis is also rich with
cucumber oil and rice. In this case, Perlis absolutely can be a largest
importer of these cargo and lead to the thriving port in Malaysia.

Table 1: flow chart of goods imported