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What are Chinamax Ships?

Classifying vessels after port or harbor facilities is a popular and common norm in the maritime domain. Chinamax is a classification of ship type based on the dead weight tonnage or carrying capacity of bulk carriers.
Often classed under the ambit of VLOCs (Very Large Ore Carriers), the Chinamax ships are also synonymously tagged as Valemax vessels. Although not an official categorization  Valemax ships gain their name and reputation from their engaging company, the Brazilian shipping conglomerate Vale.

Brazil has been a key operator since the initial heydays of ore supplying operations to China with the Vale conglomerate strongly helping to address this demand. Although initially the most commonly utilised vessels to supply ores to the Oriental nation were the Capesize ships, in the year 2011, the company came up with its first purpose-built ore carrier ships, which came to be referred to as Chinamax ships and later on as Valemax ore carrying vessels.

The need to cater to Chinese demands for mass quantities of ore-based cargo in a cost-efficient way facilitated the development and rise of Chinamax vessels. Chinamax ships were thus primarily and solely intended to ply between Brazil and the various Chinese harbour facilities, to provide the required mass quantities of ores in the least time-period possible. Presently, just as the ore-based trade industry is not restricted to Brazil and China, even the utilisation of these bulk ships is not restricted only to the Chinese port and harbour facilities.

The categorisation of these bulk ships thereby entails to include all those harbour and port facilities that offer a faster unlading capacitance for the bulk ore-based cargo. Unlike other vessels’ classifications which are named for the meshing entryway limits set by authorities of important international water conduits, these bulk carrier ships are stipulated to certain preset dimensions and are amongst the world’s largest bulk carriers operating presently.

• The Chinamax vessels have a DWT (Dead Weight Tonnage) of up to 4, 00,000 tonnes

• These vessels measure about 360 metres lengthwise with a breadth of about 65 metres and a draft of about 25 metres

• About 35 vessels are expected to be launched by the Vale conglomerate under the Chinamax class of vessels in the year 2013

Problems Surrounding Chinamax Ships

Although the utilisation of Chinamax vessels bodes well in terms of management of time and high economic returns per voyage, owners and operators of smaller-sized bulk carrier ships feel that their returns have diminished.

Another aspect dimming the sheen on the efficiency of the largest bulk carriers is that of the number of port facilities that can cater to this variance of bulk cargo carrier.

While these are indeed well-contested points, maritime experts believe that the usage of these bulk carriers will help to streamline the maritime ore-based cargo operations, like no other previous yardsticks.

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New storage terminal at Ennore Port will ease LPG supply to TN

Beneficial to customers: (from left) G.K. Vasan, Union Minister of Shipping; S. Velumani, CMD, Ennore Port Ltd, and A.M. Rao, MD, Ennore Tank Terminals Pvt Ltd, at the dedication of LPG import-export facility at Ennore Port in Chennai on Oct 10 2012.

Facility built at an investment of Rs 250 cr can store up to 6 lakh tonnes

CHENNAI, OCT. 10: 

The new bulk marine liquid storage terminal that has come up at the Ennore Port may soon end the long waiting period for LPG refill cylinder in Tamil Nadu. The integrated bulk liquid jetty to store liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) imported from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, will save a lot of time and hence prevent piling up of refill demand.

The LPG demand in the State totals 1.32 lakh tonnes a month against the indigenous availability of 32,000 tonnes. The remaining one lakh tonne is imported every month. Till date, the imported LPG used to be stored in facilities at terminals in Visakhapatnam and Mangalore ports, and brought by road to Tamil Nadu.

The new facility at Ennore can store up to six lakh tonnes. Dedicating the facility to the nation on Wednesday, Union Shipping Minister G. K. Vasan said it will benefit the consumers in the State in a big way.

In addition to the marine liquid terminal, the iron ore and non-TNEB coal terminals have also been developed through the public-private-partnership model at an investment of Rs 1,000 crore.

Ennore Tank Terminal Pvt Ltd has built the marine liquid storage terminal at an investment of Rs 250 crore. The laying of an LPG pipeline and mechanical unloading facilities in the port at an investment of Rs 82 crore have been completed.Besides, an additional storage capacity of 1.24 lakh kl for various petro-chemicals, at an investment of Rs 85 crore, has been installed by the company. The total investment in the project stands at Rs 417 crore, said A. Mallesh Rao, Managing Director, Ennore Tank Terminal.