vermorel Aug 26, 2022 | flag

Afaik, those types of ships are typically referred to as bulk carriers

A bulk carrier or bulker is a merchant ship specially designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo — such as grains, coal, ore, steel coils, and cement — in its cargo holds.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulk_carrier

The interesting element is the extra option that COSCO gains by being able to leverage one extra type of ship. This method is probably inferior cost-wise to regular containers, but if a bulk carrier is the only ship that happens to be available, then, it becomes very valuable to have the option.