Valemax and Whales!

[Robert McDonald]

Greetings from Port Townsend:  Just a note to let you know I have all five of "Today Makes Tomorrow" (TMT) VLOO Whales (A, B, C, D) accounted for.  The last of the series, E Whale just completed her maiden revenue run to China from Saldanha Bay Terminal.

+ Included a photo and description of Vale's (pronounced "valley") new assist tugs, first of 15, assigned to Ponta da Madeira ore terminal.

+ And, most exciting, preliminary data on the first of 16 400,000 DWT Valemax VLOC's. Four are under construction, due to launch starting in a few months.

Check it all out at:  http://www.oil-electric.com/2010/12/from-whales-to-rails.html

-- Robert in Port Townsend
   www.oil-electric.com

[Mats]

Hi Robert,

Your web page is very interesting!

Many of the 30(!) 400,000 dwt Valemaxes on order have got names now, according to Sea-Web.com. Here they are:
IMO NO / NAME / DELIVERY DATE / DWT / FLAG / STATUS
9565065   JAZER           2011-11      400000   Panama   On Order/Not Commenced
9566526   KAMIL           2012-02      400000   Panama   On Order/Not Commenced
9566538   WAFI           2012-02      400000   Panama   On Order/Not Commenced
9566514   YANQUL           2011-11      400000   Panama   On Order/Not Commenced
(all for Oman Shipping Co SAOC and being built at  Jiangsu Rongsheng Shipbuilding Co Ltd)

9488918   ORE CHINA   2011-03      400000   Singapore   Under Construction
+ 5 yet nameless sisters.
(all apparently for Vale SA and being built at DSME (Daewoo) in South Korea)

9532549   ORE DONGJIAKOU   2011-12   9V9119   400000   Singapore   On Order/Not Commenced
9532604   ORE FANGCHENG   2012-07   9V9124   400000   Singapore   On Order/Not Commenced
9522972   ORE HEBEI   2011-03   9V9115   400000   Singapore   On Order/Not Commenced
9532513   ORE JIANGSU   2011-06   9V9116   400000   Singapore   On Order/Not Commenced
9532551   ORE MAJISHAN   2011-12   9V9120   400000   Singapore   On Order/Not Commenced
9532587   ORE NINGBO   2012-04   9V9122   400000   Singapore   On Order/Not Commenced
9532599   ORE RIO DE JANEIRO   2012-07   9V9123   400000   Singapore   On Order/Not Commenced
9532628   ORE RIZHAO   2012-10   9V9126   400000   Singapore   On Order/Not Commenced
9532525   ORE SHANDONG   2011-09   9V9117   400000   Singapore   On Order/Not Commenced
9532575   ORE TIANJIN   2012-04   9V9121   400000   Singapore   On Order/Not Commenced
9532616   ORE YANTAI   2012-10   9V9125   400000   Singapore   On Order/Not Commenced
9532537   ORE ZHANJIANG   2011-09   9V9118   400000   Singapore   On Order/Not Commenced
(all apparently for Vale SA and being built at Jiangsu Rongsheng Shipbuilding Co Ltd)

In addition, Sea-Web lists 8 more (yet nameless) 400,000-tonners being built at STX Jinhae.

You also have more "Whales" coming. Here's the latest from Sea-Web.com:

IMO NO / Name / Status
9424209   A WHALE   IN SERVICE/COMMISSION   
9424211   B WHALE   IN SERVICE/COMMISSION   
9437177   C WHALE   IN SERVICE/COMMISSION   
9445459   D WHALE   IN SERVICE/COMMISSION   
9445461   E WHALE   IN SERVICE/COMMISSION   
9445473   F WHALE   LAUNCHED   
9468853   G WHALE   KEEL LAID   
9470040   H WHALE   KEEL LAID   
9470052   I WHALE   (sounds like an Apple mechanical whale...)   On Order/Not Commenced
9488279   J WHALE   On Order/Not Commenced
9488281   K WHALE   ON ORDER/NOT COMMENCED   

It seems they are all 319,000 dwt ore/oilers like "A Whale", except for "I Whale" and "J Whale" which are 263,000 dwt ore carriers.

On the Elephant front (VLCC oil tankers), TMT has the following newbuilds lined up:
9448700   A ELEPHANT   IN SERVICE/COMMISSION   
9421415   B ELEPHANT   IN SERVICE/COMMISSION   
9422615   C ELEPHANT   LAUNCHED   
9424261   E ELEPHANT   Keel Laid
9421427   G ELEPHANT   UNDER CONSTRUCTION   
9455662   H ELEPHANT   UNDER CONSTRUCTION

There is no D Elephant or F Elephant listed, but rater "Fortune Elephant", which is a sister to "A Elephant". I assume this means we may expect prefixes beyond a mere single letter for the rest of the Elephants as well.

Regarding Ladybugs (car carriers), they have A, B and C.

They also have "A Duckling", which is a capesize bulker.

On the funny name side, they finally have all the "Ducky" vessels (general cargo or ro/ro ships), like "Ducky Sapphire".

[Robert McDonald]

Mats:  Thank you for the information. I got my information from Ronsheng Shipbuilding, where the Valemax order is being built http://www.rshi.cn/about8.html It is handy to "cross check" with the engine builder - if there is no motor there is no ship!

With this flurry of building 400k vessels, one has to wonder if another glut is just over the horizon. Only PDM in Brazil is capable of loading one of these monsters, and they can only off load at one port in Europe - Europort - and up to three terminals, still being constructed or modified in China.

Vale ("valley") really was between a rock and a hard place in even building in China. Brazil is perfectly capable of building large ships, but the politics of iron ore was not to be overlooked. The Chinese gave BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto cause to worry last year, and threaten to cut them off. So I'm sure that's why the build order went to China.

Noticeably lacking in all this mega building is the US of A. Where did we go wrong?

Well, my RAIL stories are backing up. And I hear about it!
Regards,
Robert in Port Townsend
www.oil-electric.com

[Mats]

By the way, as I am sure you have seen, most of the "Whales" including "H Whale" are now pictured here on Shipspotting. See e.g. http://www.shipspotting.com/gallery/photo.php?lid=1224661