This month the vessel that will come to define early 21st-century trade between Latin America and Asia arrived in Guanabara Bay, the picturesque harbour of Rio de Janeiro.
The Vale Brasil, commissioned by Vale, the Brazilian miner and the world’s largest exporter of iron ore, is the first of a new breed of bulk carrier, known as the Chinamax. With a capacity of 400,000 tonnes and measuring 362m in length and 65m in width, this goliath can carry twice as much iron ore as most vessels now plying the route between Brazil and China.
Just as the caravel symbolised the age of discovery and early colonial trade between Portugal and Brazil, the Chinamax encapsulates China’s growing hunger for the natural resources of Latin America’s largest economy.
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