The Brazilian mining giant Vale sold another three Valemax bulk carriers to Chinese consortium led by finance lender ICBC for 269 million USD. The agreement for the sale of the ore carriers was contracted yesterday and delivery is scheduled for August. The mining company intends to sell its whole fleet of seven Valemax vessels to Chinese shipowners, due to legal disputes with Chinese port authorities. After sale of the ore carriers Vale will charter them for 25 years for transportation of Brazilian ore on Chinese markets. The Brazilian mining giant said that the sale of the large ore carriers is in line with the group’s divestment plan to reduce debt and raise cash.

The Brazilian mining giant Vale already sold four Valemax bulk carriers to Chinese consortium led by finance lender ICBC in December 2015. The strategy for offloading shipping fleet is part from cost reduction plan and improvement of liquidity. The company intends to offload non-core assets and reduce debt.

The Valemax ore carriers are 400,000 DWT vessels built by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering in South Korea and Jiangsu Rongsheng Heavy Industries in China. The ships have overall length of 362.00 m, moulded beam of 65.00 m, depth of 30.40 m and maximum draft of 23.00 m. The vessels are constructed with seven cargo holds with a combined gross volume of 219,980 cubic meters and net tonnage of 67,993 NT. When carrying a full load of iron ore the cargo on board equals to around 11,150 trucks. The Valemax ore carriers are propelled by a single MAN B&W 7S80ME-C8 two-stroke low-speed diesel engine directly coupled to a fixed-pitch propeller. The main engine, which has a maximum output power of 39,240 hp at 78 rpm, with fuel consumption of 96.7 tons of heavy fuel oil per day.