Floating Factories Attractive Alternative for Certain Industries
Floating factories are barely a new concept and were first used over one thousand years ago. Vessels were moored mid-stream of rivers and were fitted with paddle wheels that provided the power to grind corn. Today the most common examples of floating factories are found in the fishing industry. Factory ships are used to process harvested fish in the most remote fishing locations, such as Alaska. More and more industries are looking at the floating factory as an alternative to on shore locations to accurately meet market demands and reduce transport costs. This article highlights some of the benefits of floating factories and provides example of companies that are set to utilise them.
The off shore oil industry has made use of floating factories for decades as it is more effective to process raw materials at the source as opposed to on land. Permission for off shore processing is often easier to obtain and is less hazardous than land processing plants. Floating factories can also be constructed much faster as obtaining permits from port agents and construction can happen simultaneously. On the other hand the construction of land based factories cannot begin until all the necessary permits are obtained, which can often take a number of years. A primary advantage of floating factories is that they can easily be moved to different locations. Floating nuclear power plants are being built in Russia to provide water and electricity to remote locations along the Russian coastline.
Floating factories can also offer alternative solutions to the water and energy needs of certain industries. In the brewery industry, the average water consumption is five litres per one litre of beer. One of the World’s largest breweries SAB Miller is investing heavily into making its breweries more efficient due to the sheer scale of its current operations and pending water shortages predicted by environmentalists. The concept of a floating brewery has been suggested by their consultancy firm Innovia Technology as part of a project to predict the future sustainability of the SAB operations.
Besides many a freight shipping company, businesses and industries are increasingly looking at how floating factories can assist in more efficient operations, although strict measures have to be taken to ensure that off-shore factories do not provide opportunities for exploitation due to slacker off shore jurisdictions.