

(Posted on 17/05/21)
The fleet of ships serving Vale is to include the first large ore carrier in the world equipped with rotor sails. The VLOC (Very Large Ore Carrier) is a Guaibamax, with 325,000 tons of capacity. There are five sails installed along the vessel that will allow a gain in efficiency of up to 8% and a consequent reduction of up to 3,400 tons of CO2 equivalent per ship per year. If the pilot proves efficient, it is estimated that at least 40% of the fleet will be able to use the technology, which would result in a reduction of almost 1.5% of Vale's annual iron ore maritime transport emissions.
Rotor sails are cylindrical rotors, four meters in diameter and 24 meters high - equivalent to a seven-story building. During operation, the rotors rotate at different speeds, depending on the environmental and operational conditions of the ship, to create a pressure difference in order to move the ship forward, due to a phenomenon known as the Magnus effect.
With Vale as project leader, the installation of the technology, provided by Finnish manufacturer Norsepower, had the partnership of Korean shipowner Pan Ocean to apply it in one of its VLOCs at Vale's service. The Chinese design company Shanghai Ship and Design Research Institute (SDARI) was responsible for vessel design and integration with sail. The Chinese shipyard New Times Shipbuilding built the ship already adapted to receive the sails, which were installed at another shipyard, PaxOcean Engineering Zhoushan, also located in China. The Guaibamax is leaving China in the next days for Brazil, where it will receive the first shipment of iron ore at one of Vale's ports in the country. On average, the trip takes 40 days.
"Our naval engineering team has been studying the use of wind propulsion technology for our business since 2016. With the Ecoshipping program we have developed several cooperation partnerships with ITV (Vale Institute of Technology), universities and laboratories in Brazil and Europe. For this project, the purpose was to evaluate the best operating conditions of rotor sails in our contracted fleet, and also validate the gains of this technology in terms of reducing fuel consumption and CO2 emissions," explains Vale's s shipping technical manager, Rodrigo Bermelho.
There are five sails installed along the vessel that will allow a gain in efficiency of up to 8% and a consequent reduction of up to 3,400 tons of CO2 equivalent per ship per year
The ship chosen was already contracted to be built and the time between detailed design to manufacture and installation of the equipment was one year. In addition to laboratory tests and numerical analyses, the technicians studied the incidence of winds on the Brazil-China route. "We realized that we have a competitive advantage over our competitors: the Brazil-Asia route has more wind on average than that of Australia-Asia," Bermelho adds. According to Vale's manager, 3D models of all the company's ports were made to analyse how the ship would be moored. The sails recline to allow the operation of the ship loader. "There is no interference during loading," he says.
The technology has existed since the nineteenth century, but has been resumed more efficiently since the 1980s and only in recent years has it started to be used in large ships, such as passenger ships, cargo ships and oil tankers.
The National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA) has commended the U.S. Senate for confirming Luke... Read more
Cargill, one of the world’s leading food providers, continues to advance its growth strategy in... Read more
Rio Tinto has announced a 6% production year-on-year uplift, thereby delivering on strategy through... Read more
The Korea Trade Insurance Corporation (K-SURE) and Trafigura, a global leader in the commodities industry... Read more
BHP have released their Operational Review for the year ended 30 June 2025.BHP Chief Executive Officer... Read more
A strategic collaboration between Icon Gulf Trading DMCC (part of the Dynamic Group) and GeoServe Energy... Read more
SSAB and Metal Solutions have entered a long-term partnership for the supply of decarbonized steel with... Read more
The National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA) in the USA has applauded Congress for including a slate... Read more
Fertilizers Europe’s have released their reaction to the European Commission announcement on the... Read more
Bunge Global SA has confirmed that it has completed the previously announced sale of its North America... Read more