Tuesday 28 August 2012

The Emperor's new clothes?

The Antipodean Mariner has been a frequently commentator on Vale's failing strategy to control freight from Brazil to China. The fleet of 400,000 DWT ValeMax ore carriers remain unwelcome on China's maritime doorstep.

Seen this week at Subic Bay are not one, not two but three laden ValeMaxes ('Vale Qingdao', 'Berge Everest' and 'Vale Rio de Janiero') plus three Capesize bulkers and Ore Fabrica.

From 10th August, when the AM watched 'Vale Qingdao' rafting up with 'Berge Townsend' and 'Ore Fabrica', it has taken 18 days to discharge the full cargo at an average of about 22,000 tonnes per day. Claiming 5,000 tonnes per hour, achieving less than 1,00 tonnes per hour.

With maybe US$600 million in assets anchored, how long can Vale continue to 'spin' the good news story that Subic Bay represents a viable trans-shipment alternative to China's deep water ore ports?

AM

Day 0 - Rafting up after 13 days anchored
Day 15 - Rafted with 'Samjohn Vision'
Day 15 - Vale Rio de Janiero (left) and Berge Everest (right) anchored
awaiting their turn to discharge with another two Capes to seaward.

5 comments:

  1. a really failed strategy ...

    maybe we become a situation like in the 70ies, where the world had to much oil-tonnage caus of too many ULCC.

    when does the first valemax been seizured (joke,( ore not?))???

    Greets Jonas

    ReplyDelete
  2. think the strategy of giant Vale has not been evaluated, begin to make the owners with 35 mega ships could have repercussions across the global market.
    I want to congratulate to antipodean Mariner his posts are always very interesting.

    Your antipodean mariner from Italy
    Roberto

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  3. Good day,

    I work at the Company which manages MV SAMJOHN VISION, seen loading iron ore from the MV Ore Fabrica in one of the photographs above and I would really appreciate if I could contact you in order to obtain the photograph above for our Website and Facebook Page?

    Being based in London, seeing these photos is the only opportunity many in the office have to see the vessels doing what they are designed and built to do!

    I look forward to hearing from you.

    Best Regards

    Michael C Samonas / John Samonas and Sons Ltd

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Michael, thanks for your post. I have emailed five hi-res photos of 'Samjohn Vision' rafted up with 'Ore Fabrica' to Samona's operations email address.

      Best, the Antipodean Mariner

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    2. Good day - Thank you very much for your reply, apologies it has taken me sometime to get back to you - Unfortunately, we do not appear to have received these photos (perhaps due to file size limits).

      Would it be possible to send you a private message with my personal email (gmail account) in order to receive these?

      Thank you very much and I look forward to hearing from you.

      Best Regards

      Michael C Samonas / John Samonas and Sons Ltd

      Delete