PACIFIC RIM TRADE : Nothing but the Facts

* As of November, 1992, there were more than 5,100 container ships in the world with a total capacity of more than 3.6 million TEU’s.

* About 8,000 people form the longshore work force on the West Coast.

* Aborigines are thought to have been able to cross the Torres Strait from New Guinea to Australia--then at least 43 miles across--as early as 55000 B.C. It is believed that they used double canoes.

* The Jahre Viking is the world’s largest tanker. It has a deadweight of 622,420 tons, is 1,471 feet long, 225 feet, 11 inches wide and 80 feet, 9 inches deep. The maximum ship width for passage through the Panama Canal is 105.97 feet.

* The fastest transpacific crossing from Yokohama, Japan, to Long Beach--4,840 nautical miles (5,567.64 miles)--took 6 days, 1 hour, 27 minutes. It was made by the container ship Sea-Land commerce from June 30 to July 6, 1973, at an average speed of 33.27 knots (38.31 m.p.h.).

* As of July 1, 1992, the number of the world’s merchant ships (excluding vessels of less than 100 gross tonnage, sailing vessels and barges) stood at 72,845.

* The record for the heaviest commercial air cargo shipment is claimed by the Russian manufacturer Antonov and the British charter company Air Foyle. They transported three transformers weighing 53 tons each and other equipment from Barcelona, Spain, to Noumea, New Caledonia between Jan. 10 and Jan. 14, 1991. The total weight carried in the An-124 Rusian was 164.6 tons.

Sources: Containerisation International Yearbook 1993; ILWU, The Guinness Book of Records 1994.