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JK
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Post by JK »

In early December, on her maiden voyage, the VLOC (Very Large Ore Carrier) Vale Beijing suffered structural cracking while loading cargo at Ponta da Madeirain northeast Brasil. As reported by Maritime Propulsion , the extent of the damage was significant - the hull plating was found to have cracked in the vicinity of a water ballast tank, and from there water was making its way into a cargo hold. Vale Beijing is classed by DNV whose preliminary inspection reportedly described (in addition to the crack in outer hull plating) fairly substantial internal damage to web frames and longitudinals in the vicinity of the water ballast tank.
The vessel was moved off of the dock to be anchored to allow divers effect temporary repairs before it could be towed to a yeard for permananet repairs. Report states the hull has suffered multiple large cracks in the outer hull which allowed water ingress into the cargo hold. Brazilian authorities have requested the owners to have the fuel removed from the vessel to prevent any oil pollution being released. No details have been released to the cause of the cracks in the ballast tanks at this time. A recent report states the design of the Vale Beijing was altered from the other massive Valemax ore carriers constructed at other shipyards.
(Instead of massive, the term used should have been monstorous, this ship is huge)

If the Vale Beijing had sunk at the Ponta da Madeira pier or could have not be moved to an anchorage area outside the port for repairs, the incident would have severely delayed the operations at the port which ships out about 10 percent of the world's iron ore production.
On 11 November 1994 Trade Daring, a 145,000 DWT ore-bulk-oil carrier, broke in two at the same location due to incorrect loading, blocking the deepwater pier of Ponta da Madeira for more than six weeks before the wreck was removed and scuttled offshore.

From Wikepedia, along with bits and pieces above, "The Valemax ships are 360 to 362 metres (1,181 to 1,188 ft) long, making them some of the longest ships currently in service. With a maximum draught of between 22 and 23 metres (72 and 75 ft) while loaded the ships are limited only to a few deepwater ports in Brazil, Europe and China. The breadth of the Valemax ships is about 65 metres (213 ft).The size of the ships is limited mainly by Chinese ports and the ships of this size are generally referred to as Chinamax vessels."
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