The Vale Group of Brazil recently commenced transshipment operations at the Subic Bay freeport, two hours from the Philippine capital Manila.
For its first year of operations Vale, the world’s biggest iron ore producer, is seen contributing P70 million in additional revenues to Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA).
SBMA chair Roberto Garcia in a statement said Vale chose Subic for its strategic location in the Asia-Pacific region. “And it’s all about economies of scale. Vale will haul its ore products to Subic using its big carriers, and then transfer the iron ore to smaller vessels, which the smaller ports in China will be able to accommodate.
“This is a very fortuitous development for SBMA because Subic will be at the very center of what is expected to be the biggest ship-to-ship transfer operations in the world in terms of volume,” Garcia said.
Valemax mother vessels with a capacity of up to 400,000 deadweight tons will be used to deliver iron ore to ports in China.
The especially-designed floating terminal, the M/V Ore Fabrica, that will supply feeder ships, either Panamax or Capesize types, arrived in Subic on January 31 The M/V Vale Brazil, on the other hand, arrived on February 13.
