Class society DNV said that the damage to the VLOC Vale Beijing was not caused by any global strength issue or by the effect of single pass loading. The vessel had developed cracks in its hull when loading a shipment iron ore in northeast Brazil in December.

It said “Calculations performed by the classification society DNV demonstrate that the damage on the Very Large Ore Carrier Vale Beijing was not caused by any global strength issue. DNV does not believe that single pass loading contributed to the damage.”

DNV added that the Vale Beijing incident is not related to a general structural problem for VLOCs. The determination is presumably a huge sigh of relief for Vale which has for 19 of the 400,000 ton iron ore carriers on order.

DNV says that calculations show that the cause of the damage is most likely related to the local buckling strength in some areas of the web frames in the aft ballast tanks however that conclusion is subject to the results of the ongoing investigation and the follow-up survey after the cargo discharge and dry-docking.

As a safeguarding measure DNV also reviewed other VLOCs classed by DNV, including those ships under construction, but they did not reveal any structural insufficiencies in the VLOC designs.

STX which is the owner and operator of the Vale Beijing has started an extensive action plan for repairs on the Vale Beijing and has said that the damage is fully repairable.

(Sourced from gcaptain.com)