The Valemax Ships: A Mammoth Solution, or an Even Bigger Problem?

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In the 90s I stood in front of the Empire State Building in complete awe. In 2015 I stood next to one of these ships and couldn't even come up with something to say. You really have to see them in person to get a grip on their size.

"Each cargo hold has the capacity of an entire Panamax" That's what made me able to imagine it

My dad is a naval engineer, and there are ship lounching events open to the public.... getting up close to those behemots I got in awe and disbelief with their huge size, and I like seeing big ships since childhood ,... 😊

The other reason many places hate these ships is the squat damage done by the lower draft causing higher dredging costs, causing coastal/waters edge/mooring damage and raising the chances of these or smaller ships running aground due to the massive shift of silt material.

Iron ore carriers have an incredibly short life span as the constant loading of them scours the scantlings depth which unless they are maintained correctly results in structural compromise as such several bulkers have just completely disappeared of the face of the ocean, believed broken in two and sunk and given iron order is of such density there is no chance that once the hull is breached that the vessel will stay afloat longer than 30 seconds. Also add to the fact that if the iron ore has a high moisture content it will undergo a processes called liquefaction - meaning it flows like a liquid in the hold but then sets again as a massive solid on one side or the other, leading to a loss of stability. In short bulkers are much more dangerous than oil tankers and/or gas carriers as the industry around bulkers has been slow in addressing these issues.

1:05 - Chapter 1 - Design & development 4:00 - Mid roll ads 5:25 - Back to the video 7:15 - Chapter 2 - Specs & performance 10:15 - Chapter 3 - A controversial contribution

I lived aboard a nimitz-class carrier for 2 and 1/2 years, and those things are bloody BIG, I can't imagine how big these things are.

Interesting comment on the fuel consumption. A VLCC back in the 1970 would consume about 140 tonnes of FFO, furnace fuel oil , give take, per day. So the modern diesel engines are definitely getting more fuel efficient. I base that in the fuel consumption of the ST Nordic Chieftain, a 250,000 DWT crude oil tanker, but she was powered by a steam turbine. Interesting article.

I work in Iron Ore mining in Western Australia. Our ports can't handle Valemax. I can tell you, the (smaller) bulk carriers Australia uses to export iron ore are incredibly impressive machines. I can't imagine what these must be like.

When I saw the thumbnail I thought the naming convention was like the Suezmax, the biggest size a ship can be that can go into the Suez. So I was like "what's a Vale?"

"Puts an aircraft carrier to shame" Posts a picture of HMAS Canberra - An amphibious assault ship

I used to run tankers of close to similar size (VLCC’s). They are massive pieces of engineering.

I have to assume a "Mage"stic ship is a ship run and/or powered by mages.

Three additional vessels were ordered by a Japanese shipping company, bringing the total number of Valemax vessels to 68 as of 2020.

VLCCs (very large cargo/crude carriers) were a similar phenomenum when they appeared in the 60s and 70s, with 250,000 ton tankers and bulk carriers. Now such things, as well as oversized container ships, are the norm; but they are not without the downsides, such as the Berge Vanga and Istra, which sank unexpectedly en route from Brazil to the Far East, the Ever Given, which provided much media airtime. For ocean trade size is definitely better, but ... is it worth the hassle

There's go to be a reason they don't just refine the ore to pig iron before shipping. You'd think that would save on weight like pre-planing saves it on lumber.

More about the shipping industry, please!

To give a comparison for how just how much 400,000 tons is the Bismarck as in the gigantic German battleship from the second world war weighed about 50,000 tons.

Hilarious typo in the thumbnail...looks like Simon needs to take the Blazement slaves on a day trip