The Berge Stahl is t with a load capacity of 364,768 and a length of 343 meters one of the largest bulk carriers in the world and drives since 2011 under the flag of the Isle of Man (before she went under the flag of Norway ). From 1986 until the commissioning of the Vale Brasil with around 400,000 tons of loading capacity in March 2011, she was the largest ship of its kind.
Die Berge Stahl was built on March 14, 1986 at the shipyard of Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. in Ulsan ( South Korea ) for the Partrederiet Bergesen in the Norwegian Stavanger to put Kiel . The launch took place on September 4, 1986 and at the end of the year the finished ship was delivered. The ship is managed by BW Maritime, the commercial management is in the hands of Berge Bulk.
Due to its enormous size and a draft of more than 23 m, it can only call at three ports worldwide when fully loaded: the Terminal Marítimo de Ponta da Madeira of the Vale mining company in Brazil as well as the port of Saldanha in South Africa, which is located in a natural bay, as loading ports and the Europoort Rotterdam in the Netherlands as the destination port. Ten times a year the ship makes a voyage from one of the two overseas ports to Europe, with iron ore, which is mostly destined for Germany.
In Brazil, ore loading takes 30–35 hours, and after a 14-day journey, unloading in Rotterdam takes 3.5 days. For the 11-day return trip, 118,000 t of ballast water is taken up, a fifth of which is pumped out again after passing the Biscay , as the bad weather risk is then lower.
The name Berge Stahl is derived from the name of the shipping company founder, Sigval Bergesen d. y., and derived by analogy with its cargo (iron ore). Many ships of the shipping company begin with the name part Berge (Berge Athene, Bergeland) - comparable with Exxon , Shell etc. as part of the name of tankers . In Norway, Berge is both first and last name and means, as in German, to bergen.
