Posted on 01/08/2012 9:23:20 PM PST by bruinbirdman
Longer than the Eiffel Tower, wide as a football pitch and with the capacity for more than 11,000 trucks, the first of a record-breaking fleet of giant ships has completed its maiden voyage to China.
Onboard the Berge Everest was around 350,000 tonnes of iron ore, according to industry sources, enough to make the steel for more than three Golden Gate bridges. After unloading its cargo at the port of Dalian, the vessel has started its journey home to Brazil, it emerged last week.
The ship's arrival was momentous, because of both its scale and the scale of the gamble by Vale, the world's biggest iron ore producer, and the wider shipping industry. Brazilian miner Vale is bringing about a sea change in the shipping industry with its $8bn (£5bn) roll-out of an unprecedented fleet of 35 massive iron ore carriers, including the Berge Everest.
Classed as very large ore carriers (VLOCs), the biggest of the "Valemax" fleet boasts a 400,000 dead weight tonnage (dwt) – the amount a ship can safely carry – which far exceeds the 364,000dwt of the previous record holder.
Vale's new fleet underscores a much wider trend to boost the capacity of carriers of dry bulk commodities such as iron and coal.
Capesize ships – megaships so-called because they were too big to travel through the Panama or Suez Canals so went via Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope – have crept up from around 120,000dwt in the early 1980s to closer to the 180,000dwt mark in the past decade.
The logic is simple: economies of scale. The trend has helped to keep shipping costs at astoundingly low levels for the loads involved. Now, with Vale, we are seeing a jump in the movement to supersize, albeit with some
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Hmm. There is a capsize in Capesize.
Because--last time I checked--neither of those places are actually in China, the destination for that load.
The Brazilians built them to ship their iron ore to China. The Chicaps dis not build them
The reason was they needed to lower the cost of delivery to compete with Australian miners.
Un mentioned was what will happen when the Ausies get bigger ships?
How much would it take to convert into an aircraft carrier?
It’s really an amazing thing. They could do an entire hour of a “how it’s done” kind of show on that and I would watch it. From how it’s manufactured to how it is installed and the operation and maintenance of it.
I wouldn't say "dwarf". At 400,000 tons (the biggest of the Valemax fleet), would be quite a large ship. But, yes, the biggest oil tankers are larger.
Also, keep in mind, the ships are typically measured in dead weight tons. Meaning, with it fully loaded, which the 400,000 tons is the measurement of it loaded. And historically, some oil tankers have approached 600,000 dead weight tons when fully loaded.
However, the largest of the ships in the Valemax fleet at 400,000 dwt, is about (or will be) 200,000 tons. And the largest oil tankers, when empty, aren't significantly heavier, maybe 270,000 tons. At least not to a point where one would say it would dwarf the largest Valemax ships. The one described in this article is about 350,000 dwt.
Right-o! Once upon a time though, WE made the steel, and China made.....rice and tea;)
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