Vale Beijing Maiden Voyage Cut Short! (Updated)

[Robert McDonald]

A report from Reuters (with photographs) stated:

"Tugs moved the massive ship from the dock at about 10 a.m. (1300 GMT) in the port in Sao Luis in northeastern Brazil and will tow it to a location outside the shipping channel, a harbor pilot official told Reuters."

Read full story, with photographs, here: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/06/us-vale-shipping-idUSTRE7B512120111206

New Material added 12/6/11 10PM Local:  Moving the vessel eliminated blocking Pier 1, recalling the Trade Daring incident: http://www.oil-electric.com/2011/12/vale-beijings-maiden-voyage-cut-short.html

Added Dec 7 6AM Local:  A report in O Globo, who first broke the story, states that water is being pumped from the ballast system, and that a team of technician are enroute to PDM from South Korea's STX Pan Ocean. No other statements are being made public either by Vale or STX Pan Ocean.

Added Dec 7 12PM Local:  A late report in O Globo states: "The situation is very serious. It is a new ship in leaf, is not usual that this type of problem happens. For the time being, we do not have a final solution for this. We really want to understand what happened. Cracks in two tanks of the ballast had affected the stability of the boat."


Robert in Port Townsend.

[Radu]

They sure built them cheap, horrible vessels all in all, thank god for Berge.

[Phil English]

I wouldn't call $110 million cheap. STX are a leading, World-class builder and the rupture could just as easily be due to poor loading rather than structural failure.

Brgds
Phil

[Radu]

I wouldn't put the blame on careless loading habits, especially since they have so much experience, I'm more interested in seeing how Berge's VLOC's hold up, although Berge Everest has been in service for quite some time now there are no good photos of it.

Cheers.

[Robert McDonald]

Could turn out to be a "Monday Morning Weld!"

Robert in Port Townsend.

[Captain Ted]

I DON,T KNOW EXACT WHERE THE VESSEL WAS BUILDED,,BUT ONE THING I KNOW,,THAT VIRTUALLY ALL SHIPS OVER 300M REPORT SOONER OR LATER HAVE STRUCTURAL PROBLEMS AND IF THEY ARE BUILDED IN CHINA THATS A GIVEN !!!
 

[Phil English]

Thant's a very bold statement to make Capt., given that there are currently almost 1,500 vessels in service over 300 m, not to mention hundreds of scrapped ships over 300 m which had long and incident-free lives.

Brgds
Phil

[Mats]

There are some interesting videos on Youtube, including this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhnjPLIK_lM

[Radu]

I don't speak portuguese but in that video the ship is presented to be 391 meters when it actually has a LOA of 361.

Phil, where did you get that number?

Also, Jahre Viking, the largest ship ever constructed lasted 34-35 years with no major structural faults, although she was built in Japan.

[Phil English]

Radu,

I work for a company compiling data on the global merchant fleet and have access to, or can produce all kinds of facts and figures.

Brgds
Phil

[ChasB46]

From STX website ..quote "STX Pan Ocean took over the world

[BobS]

It is most fortunate that the fault was discovered while the ship was still in port. Otherwise, this could have resulted in an ore carrier disappearance/sinking that would have made those of DERBYSHIRE and KOWLOON BRIDGE pale into insignificance.

[Radu]

Bob, that's very true, let's hope it's a minor fix, waiting for an update on the situation.

Phil, thanks for the answer, I somehow thought that number would be greater, is it increasing or decreasing?