The Vale Brasil : The Longest Ore Carrier in the World

The Vale Brasil is one of the largest cargo ships in the world. Designed by a concept devised by Vale shipping industries based in Rio de Janerio, Brazil, the ship’s launching comes after a huge thought process and visualisation to it.

The ship was built in the Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co. Korea with a dead weight tonnage (DWT) of 4,00,000 tons. On an operational basis, the carrier is expected to be used between the port of Rio de Janerio and the Asian ports

Some of the main highlights of the Vale Brasil can be enumerated as follows:

• The main reason the ship has been launched is to solve the problem of ore supply to the Asian market. Along with an increased supply capacity of the ores, the Vale Brasil is also equipped with high quality safety standards. The Vale Brasil also aims at bringing down the cost of ore transportation between the ports of its operation

• The ship promises of reduction in the carbon emission rates by nearly 35%. This statistic has been calculated as per every ton of ore that the ship carries

Interesting Facts

• The Vale Brasil is the longest ore carrier that has been created with dimensions of 362 metres lengthwise, 65 metres width wise and 56 metres height wise.

• Comparing its length horizontally, it can be seen that it measures more than the Eiffel Towers of Paris – the Paris monument stands at 324 metres vertically.

• Considering the huge size of the ship, there is just one port from where the ship can load – the Ponta da Madeira (PDM) port.

• The speed of the Vale Brasil is around 15 knots while the engine capacity of the ship is 25,000 Kilo Watts (KW).

• The ship referred as a logistics solution to the ore transportation supplies from South America to Asia.

The Vale Brasil is the first ship that has been launched as a part of the Vale shipping corporation to create container ships with a huge carrying capacity. The total investment that has been invested (for the ships to be designed in the Korean shipyard in this entire project) is said to be around US$ 748 million. The number of ships that are ordered to be built at the Daewoo Shipyard is seven while overall 35 ships have been ordered to be built.

With the help of a ship like the Vale Brasil it can be hoped that both the cargo carrying area and the problem of emissions are completely solved. This can bring about a large scale revolution in terms of marine cargo and transportation.

The Vale Brasil has been nominated under the Clean Ship Award category in the prestigious Nor-Shipping Awards to be held in Norway on the 24^th May 2011.

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