It wasn’t all that long ago that Brazilian mining company Vale S.A. decided to enter the global shipping market. The move made sense; instead of hiring global shipping companies to transport iron ore from Brazil to Chinese steel mills, Vale would construct its own fleet.

Up until then, the most commonly utilized iron ore carriers, Capesize ships, capped out at an approximate capacity of 180,000 tons. Contracting them was not cheap; the average transport time from Brazil to China is about 45 days and the cost to get shipments from point A to point B came at a cost of just over $100,000 per day. Then came 2007: the year Vale’s ship chartering costs increased by nearly 80 percent. It was time for a change, and the Valemax ships were conceptualized to be a world-wide game changer.

Valemax ships were conceptualized to be a world-wide game changer.

Vale’s plan involved the construction of 35 ships that would have the capacity to carry up to 400,000 tons of iron ore per trip, well surpassing the previous record holder, the Berge Stahl, which was rated at 364,000 tons.  From a mental imaging perspective, these ships would be nearly four times the length of a football field. They would be big, lean, iron ore transporting machines. More…