The 361-metre-long Vale Bejing is loaded with enough high-grade iron ore to make the steel for nearly three-and-a-half Golden Gate bridges. Were it to settle to the bottom at the Ponta da Madeira Port near Sao Luis, Brazil, the carrier could disrupt about a third of Vale’s 300 million tonnes in annual shipments of iron ore.
The world’s largest iron-ore carrier is disabled and could sink at a key Brazilian port from where Vale SA, the world’s No. 2 mining company, loads about 10 per cent of the global iron-ore trade, shipping agents and media said on Monday.
The crippled Vale Beijing is the latest blow to Vale’s multibillion-dollar plan to have a fleet of 35 of the world’s biggest iron-ore carriers to tap demand in the world’s fastest growing emerging market, China.
At an estimated cost of $150-million (U.S.) to build, the new Vale Beijing was delivered in September to its operator South Korea’s STX Pan Ocean. Engineers from the company are expected to arrive at the port on Tuesday.