OREANDA-NEWS. November 15, 2012. The Port of Tubarao in Vitoria, Brazil, will receive today the Vale Espirito Santo, a ship capable of transporting 400,000 metric tons of iron ore. Named for the state that is home to the company's most important iron ore export port, the ship will be loaded up with ore before sailing to the Port of Sohar in Oman.

This will be the ship's first loading operation and the tenth time a Valemax vessel has docked at Tubarao, following Vale's work to prepare the port to accommodate the world's largest ore carriers.

The Vale Espirito Santo, which was built at a Chinese shipyard by STX Dalian Shipbuilding Co., is 361 meters long and 65 meters wide. It is one of 18 ships already operating, out of a total order for 35 ships owned or chartered by Vale, placed with Chinese and South Korean shipyards, to be delivered by 2013, and to operate exclusively for the company.

Valemax ships are part of Vale's logistics solution to connect its maritime terminals in Brazil with its Asian and European customers. The objectives are to maximize operational efficiency, reduce the cost of transporting iron ore across the seas to steel mills, and contribute to cutting carbon emissions per ton of ore transported. The ore carriers have strict safety and operational efficiency standards, and produce 35% less carbon emissions per ton of ore transported than conventional vessels.

So far seven ports around the world receive Valemax ships - Villanueva (the Philippines), Tubarao and Ponta da Madeira (Brazil), Taranto (Italy), Rotterdam (the Netherlands), Sohar (Oman) and Oita (Japan) - as well as a floating ore transfer station in Subic Bay in the Philippines. By the end of 2013, 35 ships each capable of transporting 400,000 metric tons will be available to carry iron ore for Vale - 19 owned by the company and 16 chartered by it through long-term contracts.

Once Vale's second floating ore transfer station begins operating, planned for the first quarter of 2013, together with a distribution center in Malaysia and its entire fleet of Valemax ships, Vale will be fully prepared to serve Asian markets on an equal footing with its competitors based in the region. This entire logistics solution, encompassing ships, transfer stations and distribution centers, is expected to be in place by the start of 2014.