What Are Blank Sailings In Shipping?

A blank sailing is when a shipping company cancels the scheduled voyage of a vessel, often due to maintenance issues or lack of cargo. This can occur when a ship does not call at one or more of its scheduled intermediate stops, and the carrier cancels one part or the entire journey of the vessel. For example, a carrier may run three blank sailings.

Blank sailings are a characteristic for shipping routes where the carrier has knowingly removed a scheduled voyage. Instead of a ship departing and arriving as planned, it remains docked or changes its route. Blank sailings can be caused by a lack of cargo or a portion of an ocean sailing being cancelled. Liner services use blank sailings to keep freight moving and maintain capacity.

A blank sailing is a sailing that has been canceled by the carrier, which may mean one port is skipped or the entire string is canceled. The decision to skip a certain port or an entire voyage of a scheduled sailing route is typically made by carriers. Blank sailings can leave large gaps in capacity and put pressure on other service providers.

In the shipping industry, blank sailings are used to communicate the cancellation of a ship’s atracação on a scale of ships. For example, a ship may set off from Hamburg and cancel its call at a port they were scheduled to visit.

What is the rule 5 in sailing?

§ 83.05 Look-out (Rule 5). Every vessel shall at all times maintain a proper look-out by sight and hearing as well as by all available means appropriate in the prevailing circumstances and conditions so as to make a full appraisal of the situation and of the risk of collision.

What is the blank sailing strategy?

In the dynamic world of ocean freight, ‘blank sailings’ is a term that logistics and supply chain professionals, especially those involved in importing goods to the U.S. from Asia, need to be intimately familiar with. Blank sailings occur when a carrier decides not to load a vessel for a particular trip, effectively canceling a scheduled sailing. This can be due to various reasons such as vessel maintenance or repositioning of ships, or most commonly, as a response to market demand and capacity management.

Impact on Ocean Freight Rates. The immediate effect of blank sailings is on ocean freight rates. By reducing capacity, carriers can influence market rates, often leading to increased costs for shippers. This is a classic supply and demand scenario: fewer sailings mean less space, driving up the price for available space. For companies importing from Asia to the U.S., this can translate into higher logistics costs, affecting overall product pricing and margins.

Securing Space and Capacity Challenges. One of the biggest challenges for importers due to blank sailings is securing space on vessels. With reduced capacity, competition for available space intensifies. This situation can be particularly acute during peak seasons or when unexpected surges in demand occur. Companies may find it increasingly difficult to secure space, leading to delays and potential disruptions in their supply chain.

What is line blanking?

A blanking line is a process where square, round or rectangular parts are mechanically or hydraulically pressed or stamped out of a coil. A blank is sometimes also referred to as a flat sheet of material cut to a very precise length and corner-to-corner tolerance, say off of a cut to length line.

A master coil of feedstock is placed on an uncoiler. After peeling the head of the coil, the leading edge of the coil is feed into a flattener or leveler to remove any stresses in the material and assure the part to be cut out will remain flat in downstream processes. Servo feed rolls push the material into a loop just prior to the press. With each cycle of the ram in the press a measured length of material is fed into the press on the upstroke. The strokes per minute can vary from 6 to 60 strokes per minute. Say a blanking press runs at 40 strokes per minute (SPM), so each hit takes 1.5 seconds. Hypothetically, let’s say that for one application involving mild steel, 1 second of that 1.5-second cycle is needed for feeding, and 0.5 second is needed for the clamping and cutting. However, today’s new high-strength steel (AHSS) may require 1 second for clamping and cutting. This also doubles the feeding time, increasing it to 2 seconds. That increases a total cycle of 3 seconds. So now the press can run at only 20 SPM. The uncoiling of the strip never stops and continually keeps material in the loop. By this method there is no “jerking” of the material off the uncoiler creating issues with length tolerance and possibly damaging the feedstock.

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What are the effects of blank sailing?

How Demurrage and Detention Relate to Blank Sailings. Blank sailings result in a temporary reduction in available containers and space on the ship. Consequently, when the ship eventually arrives at the destination port after blank sailing, there can be a higher demand for unloading and returning empty containers.

This increased demand can lead to delays in retrieving and returning containers, causing consignees to exceed the allowed free time for both unloading (demurrage) and returning the container (detention). As a result, consignees may face additional charges for going beyond the free time for unloading and detention, due to the disruptions caused by blank sailing.

Filled containers are also affected by these delays. Terminal operators sometimes reduce their work shifts at ports, due to lower imports during blank sailing. This makes it challenging to adjust the pickup schedule, leaving containers stranded at ports for longer periods and consuming their allotted free days. Under these conditions, demurrage and detention charges also come into play, and they can accumulate up to as much as 20-times the value of the container itself.

What is a voided sailing?

Blank or void sailing: A definition. Blank or void sailings are when a cargo shipcancels its call at a port they were scheduled to visit.

For example, a ship may set off from Ningbo port, China with scheduled stops at Dubai, UAE and Valencia, Spain before ending at Felixstowe, UK. On route the captain could cancel the stop at Dubai, preventing cargo being dropped off or boarded in the United Arab Emirates.

Unfortunately for shippers, blank sailings are an infrequent but unavoidable part of international sea freight.

Why do blank sailings happen?. There are a variety of reasons, but we will now run through some of the more common ones. Unfortunately, none are easy to predict ahead of time.

Why do ships not use sails?

This can be due to the type of ship, as the largest container ships can’t easily accommodate sails, for example. It can also be because of where or how vessels operate—the windless waters of the doldrums and tight ferry schedules do pose challenges.

What does clear sails mean?

Easy progress : easy progress : progress that is not blocked by anything. Now that the permit has been approved, we expect to have clear sailing from here on.

Recent Examples on the Web Interstate 91 was clear sailing, but I-93, which comes up from the Boston area was already quite congested before 10 a.m. —John Bacon, USA TODAY, 8 Apr. 2024 Then Zakreski blows by two Silvertips for clear sailing to the goal, even absorbing a late trip from Olen Zellweger. —Dylan Bumbarger, oregonlive, 24 Nov. 2022 The days of clear sailing and easy living are over for Maersk, but with a solid base of long-term contracts and customers who may still be skittish on supply-chain security, the company also holds a lot of cards. —Megha Mandavia, WSJ, 2 Nov. 2022 The pass from Huskies quarterback Michael Penix deflected off the helmet of an offensive lineman and right into the hands of Clark who had clear sailing. —Michelle Gardner, The Arizona Republic, 10 Oct. 2022 Does that mean clear sailing for Jonathan? —al, 11 May 2022 Martinez jumped a short pass route and had nothing but clear sailing on his way to the score. —John Peery, orlandosentinel.com, 19 Nov. 2021 Robinson had clear sailing to the end zone with only one tackler to beat. —oregonlive, 14 Aug. 2021 The connection to Windsor and eventually to Wethersfield will create bridge access to South Windsor and Glastonbury, meaning bicycle commuters from all of those towns will have clear sailing to downtown Hartford. —Tom Condon, courant.com, 19 July 2021.

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word ‘clear sailing.’ Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

“Clear sailing.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, merriam-webster.com/dictionary/clear%20sailing. Accessed 31 Jul. 2024.

What are the six types of sailings?

‘Sailings’ is a term given to various methods used to determine courses and distances to be steamed when travelling from one geographical position to another. There are six different “sailings”, ie Parallel, Plane, Middle Latitude, Mercator, Great Circle and a combination of Great Circle and one of the others. During (…)

By parallel sailing we mean travelling along a parallel of latitude from one place to another. This means that one would either be travelling directly westward or eastward (270° (T) or 090° (T)). The distance along a parallel of latitude between two particular meridians decreases as the meridians converge towards (…)

When we refer to plane sailing we mean sailing from one position to another where the latitude and longitude of each is different to the other. Because we are using a mean latitude, this method is not very accurate over long distances and should be confined to distances of 600 (…)

Why do carriers do blank sailings?

Blank Sailings are generally caused by shifting market dynamics. For example, in times of low demand for space on a vessel, carriers can blank sailings to reduce their available capacity by consolidating shipments, helping them keep rates stable.

What is blank shipping?

When an ocean carrier cancels or skips a scheduled port of call or region in the middle of a fixed rotation, that route is considered a Blank Sailing (also called a Void Sailing). Blank Sailings are generally caused by shifting market dynamics.