Naming ceremony for COSCO Valemax bulker
COSCO Shipping Heavy Industrys Yangzhou shipyard held a naming ceremony for the 398,595 dwt ‘Yuan Shen Hai’ on 18 April. The vessel is the second of a series of next generation Valemax very large ore carriers (VLOC) under construction with the Chinese shipyard. Once the vessel is delivered, it will be operated by COSCO Shippings Singapore-based subsidiary China Ore Shipping.
The vessel will transport iron ore from Brazilian mining company Vale’s northern and southern mining systems to customers in China’s steelmaking sector. The design has been tailored by Chinese naval architects to the needs of Vale for the Brazil-China trade.
Vale is one of the largest producers of high-quality iron ore in the world, and is in the midst of expanding production of its high quality Carajas ore from its northern system. Its ore faces additional transportation costs in the key Chinese import market compared with its main competitors, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, who export their high quality iron ore from northwestern Australia.
When the Yuan Shen Hai is delivered later in 2019, COSCO will have a total of 14 VLOCs of around 400,000dwt at its disposal.
The COSCO delivery forms part of a wider programme of Valemax newbuildings in Chinese yards in 2019. Earlier in the year, the China Merchants Group took delivery of Pacific Longevity, the fourth of a series of ten Valemax carriers order by the group, from CSIC’s Qingdao Beihei shipyard on 22 February.
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