Reuters reported that South Korea's STX Pan Ocean said that the world's largest dry bulk freighter, anchored and damaged in a Brazilian port, can be repaired and deliver an iron ore cargo for Vale.

After a request from Brazil's environmental protection agency, a salvage company has been hired to remove most of the fuel from Vale Beijing, a so called Chinamax class vessel.

The statement said “While engineers believe the ship can be repaired they have not yet determined the cause of cracks in the ships ballast tanks that disabled the ship which was delivered in September and on its maiden cargo voyage.”

Brazilian Navy Commander Mr Calmao Bahia, the Harbor Master of Sao Luis, the port city on Sao Marcos Bay where the ship is anchored, said “I've been informed by STX of their contingency plan to remove part of the fuel aboard the Vale Beijing. This is merely a precautionary measure, no oil has spilled from the tanks into the hull or into the ocean.”

Commander Bahia said “The cracks are large and in the outer hull and caused leaks into the cargo hold. In general terms repairs on ships can be done at sea, but whether STX plans to do this here or in some other port, I don't know.”

The Vale Beijing is one of the first of 35 "Chinamax" or "Valemax" ships commissioned by Rio de Janeiro based Vale. Vale is betting on the mega ships to slash shipping costs and better compete with Australian rivals BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.

The Vale Beijing developed cracks in its hull and ballast tanks while being loaded with 260,000 tonnes of high grade iron ore at the Port of Ponta da Madeira, a Vale owned terminal responsible for the shipment of nearly 10% of the world's seaborne iron ore exports of about 1 billion tonnes a year. Loading of the full 384,300 tonne load destined for Europe's port of Rotterdam, was suspended when the cracks were found in the hull.

(Sourced from Reuters)