In terms of equipment and other construction technologies, the shipbuilding industry of the Tang Empire is already fully equipped to construct ships of 10,000 tons, and it is also very mature. The only limitations are funds and the market.
Because the construction of a 10,000-ton ship requires a larger dock, and building a 1,000-ton dock does not take an hour, the amount of work is quite large, the construction period is long, and the investment is large.
In addition to the shipyard, there is also a big problem with equipment. There are many kinds of large-scale equipment required to build a 10,000-ton ship, and each piece of equipment is very expensive.
This means that if the shipyard wants to upgrade and build a 10,000-ton shipyard, it will need to invest heavily in advance.
However, now 10,000-ton ships are expensive, operating costs are high, and there are few ports that can berth. Many companies still have great concerns about the use of 10,000-ton ships. Therefore, the market for 10,000-ton ships is actually not very big.
In addition to warships, the current relatively large market for 10,000-ton ships should be luxury passenger ships. When major shipping companies build large-scale luxury passenger ships, they do not consider operating costs more, but consider the company's brand image, and
At present, people in the empire are accustomed to taking these large passenger ships when traveling across oceans.
At the same time, it is also supported by a large amount of subsidies from the Immigration and Reclamation Department, so although the operation cost is high, it will not lose money.
But in other fields, there are very few 10,000-ton ships. At least for now, there are no 10,000-ton ships for cargo ships. Some time ago, there was hope to break through this limit, that is, oil tankers, but after comprehensive consideration, Imperial Oil Company still
Instead of choosing a 10,000-ton oil tanker, we chose a small 3,000-ton oil tanker.
Not to mention ordinary cargo ships. Basically, newly built cargo ships are concentrated between 2,000 tons and 3,000 tons. A few are four or five thousand tons. There are very few more than 5,000 tons. Needless to say, 10,000 tons.
Tons.
Because the navigation industry of the Tang Empire generally believed that ocean-going ships, especially cargo ships, should use ships of less than 5,000 tons, preferably between 2,000 tons and 3,000 tons, and motor-driven sailing ships were the most cost-effective.
The cargo that can be loaded with this tonnage is quite large, and it can often meet general needs.
At the same time, ships of this tonnage can relatively easily find ports to dock and load and unload cargo when in overseas territories or indigenous-controlled areas, which is very important.
At the same time, this tonnage can also use sail power. The steam engine can allow the ship to maintain an average speed during the voyage, and at the same time, the sail can be used to save coal during most of the voyage.
Now even sails can directly use various mechanical equipment to replace manpower, which also means that manpower costs are greatly reduced.
Nowadays, the personnel cost of a three-thousand-ton sailing bulk carrier is actually not much more than that of a five- to six-hundred-ton sailing wooden ship in the past. Sometimes, if the ship owner is bold enough, the cost can be increased even further.
Here's the part that comes down.
However, if the tonnage is too large, then the sail will lose its function and can only rely on steam engine power, which will consume a lot of coal.
Although the Tang Empire has spread all over the world, coal warehouses have been built in every port it can go to, and coal has also been developed in overseas territories. For example, in recent years, ships in Europe and even the Atlantic have used a large amount of coal.
It's imported from the UK.
There is a lot of coal in the UK, mostly anthracite, and the quality is quite good.
The Tang people, who rarely make large-scale investments in indigenous countries, could not resist the temptation this time and went to the UK to invest in coal mines and hire locals to mine large amounts of coal. The main customers of these coals are naturally
Ships of the Tang Dynasty.
However, even if coal warehouses are set up at supply ports around the world, coal still costs money, and the price is not low.
Over the years, the prices of many industrial raw materials have fallen and risen, but generally speaking, bulk goods, such as steel, have mainly fallen.
But coal is an exception. Although the output of coal has increased significantly every year, the consumption has also increased. Therefore, after so many years, although the Zhang family has not been able to continue, the price has not been reduced, and it has basically remained the same as ten years ago.
s price.
This also means that the price of coal is not low, which also leads to the operating cost of pure steam ships being not low.
This is why the Tang Empire's current maritime industry is more inclined to choose ships that use both engines and sails, rather than purely steam-powered ships.
Under the influence of many factors, the current navigation industry in Datang mainly tends to choose motor-driven ships of several thousand tons, but pure steam ships of larger tonnage.
This, in turn, makes the ships in this field of shipbuilding cheaper and cheaper to build, because the technology of this two-thousand-ton ship is very mature, and there are many orders at the same time, which has led to the influx of more and more shipyards.
Among them, there were at least dozens of shipyards in the entire Tang Empire that were capable of constructing merchant ships of 2,000 to 3,000 tons.
As there are more shipyards, although there are still many orders, competition is also fierce. Under the competition, the price of ships of this level has gradually decreased.
This, in turn, makes shipowners more inclined to choose ships of this tonnage.
It has to be said that this can be regarded as an irony.
To change this situation, I am afraid that the cost of shipbuilding must be further reduced. At the same time, more importantly, the price of coal must continue to decline. Then there will be more large-tonnage terminals in various places, which will lead to procurement and operating costs being reduced.
, ships of around 10,000 tons can appear in batches.
However, although ships of several thousand tons are now available, they are still very different from before. The same number of sailors could only support sailing wooden ships of several hundred tons in the past, but now, it is only a little easier to drive a motor-driven sailboat of several thousand tons.
No problems at all.
The combination of many factors led to a rapid increase in the total tonnage of Datang's ships, and it has risen to the terrifying figure of more than four million tons today.
But so many ships were actually not enough for the huge Tang Empire.
This is why countless ships are still under construction at the docks of major shipyards, and there are more orders on hand queuing up.
The Transportation Department of the Tang Empire believes that the current total tonnage demand for ships in the empire remains at around five million tons, and this demand is still growing rapidly.
Judging from the current development of the empire, in ten years the total demand for ships will reach tens of millions of tons.
If the development momentum continues, in 20 to 30 years, optimistically, this number may become 20 million tons.