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Shipping |
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The long-distance shipment of low-value bulk products, such as aggregates, requires cost-effective transportation methods. |
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| Polaris has entered into two long term shipping agreements with CSL International Inc. (CSL), the operator of the world's largest fleet of rapid self-unloading freighters. The first agreement, a 10-year Contract of Affreightment for up to 5 million tons per year of shipping capacity, was signed in 2005. The second agreement is a 15-year Contract of Affreightment for an additional 2.8 million tons per annum of shipping capacity beginning in 2010. |
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CSL Acadian arriving at the Orca Quarry marine terminal, March 31, 2007 |
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This relationship with CSL provides Polaris with distribution certainty at a time when world shipping markets are highly volatile. Reliable and cost-effective rapid self-discharge ships are a vital link in the logistical chain, and Polaris is extremely pleased to have CSL as its shipping partner.
CSL's Panamax vessels are loaded at the Orca Quarry at a rate of approximately 5,000 tons per hour using a high-speed quadrant beam shiploader. In less than 24 hours, up to 80,000 tons of sand and gravel can be loaded.
San Francisco Bay, however, only has shallow-water ports available for bulk carriers and these cannot accommodate fully-laden Panamax-class aggregate carriers. To overcome this challenge, the CSL vessels anchor in a deepwater anchorage and are met by a fleet of Shamrock barges. Utilizing their onboard automatic self-unloading equipment, part of the cargo is rapidly discharged into the barges. This lessens the draft of the ships so they can move into the shallow-water terminals to discharge the remainder of their cargo. At the terminals, the ships unload at a rate of up to 5,000 tons per hour, thus minimizing waiting times and associated port costs and enhancing the vessel's productivity.
Having access to ships that can carry full cargoes over long distances and rapidly discharge minimizes the delivered cost per ton and offers a significant competitive advantage to Polaris. In addition, the Company has long term supply contracts with the only two customers in the San Francisco Bay area capable of receiving large quantities of material to barges and land-based terminals. |
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| Although the shiploader at the Orca Quarry was designed for large Panamax-class bulk carriers, it can also load smaller vessels and barges to supply local markets requiring shallower draft vessels. On March 22, 2007, Polaris loaded barges for Burnco Rock Products, a Vancouver-based customer as the commencement of a five year supply contract. |
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Barge loading at the Orca Quarry |
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