Brazilian miner Vale reached a deal on Friday to expand its fleet of extremely large ships for carrying iron ore, following a truce with China’s largest shipping company that raised the prospect of the vessels being allowed to dock at Chinese ports.
The very large ore carriers or VLOCs – dubbed Valemax in the shipping industry – were developed by Vale to help reduce its shipping costs, which are higher than its two Australian rivals, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, because of Brazil’s greater distance from Asian customers.
But only the maiden ship had docked in China in 2011 when the Chinese Ministry of Transport banned them from Chinese ports, citing technical issues.