Recently, the Port of Rotterdam welcomed the Vale Rio de Janeiro, the largest bulk carrier ever to visit Rotterdam. The vessel transports iron ore and has a load capacity of 400,000 t and a maximum depth of 23 m. The ship was commissioned last year. Brazilian iron ore multinational Vale plans to build nineteen of these vessels, setting a new standard for iron ore transport by sea.

The Vale Rio takes the place of the Berge Stahl, which used to be the largest dry bulk carrier of the port of Rotterdam with a load capacity of 365,000 t. This vessel has been sailing from Ponta de Madeira to Rotterdam for 25 years, but is currently at the dock for repairs after which it will sail between the Netherlands and Brazil for another five years.

Below a Dutch video about the Vale Rio de Janeiro made by RTV Rijnmond.

After the Costa Concordia made the headlines by running onto a rock off the island of Giglio in Italy, QPS made the following reconstruction based on the AIS data. The company used its Qastor Pilotage software to replay the final minutes of the Costa Concordia and show the sort of warnings that are available to the mariner in today's software.

The Costa Concordia apparently had a habit of sailing close to the island of Giglio. On the 14th of August 2011, the Costa Concordia made a similar, but near-miss, passage as the one in January that resulted in the ship's grounding. The first close encounter took place near the same rock formation the ship hit in January (Punta di Castellari 238 m distance/13.8 kn), the second one at Punta di Lazaretto (with only 156 m distance/11.6 kn). QPS also made a reconstruction of this passage, which you can watch below.

Dutch regional television company TV Drenthe has made a television series about people working in the Eemshaven (port in the North of the Netherlands and part of Groningen Seaports). The different episodes show different professions in and around the port. Below a promo video and the first episode (both in Dutch). For more episodes, please visit mensenmakendeeemshaven.nl.

This month's SWZ Maritime also features an article about the Eemshaven being the largest construction site in the North of the Netherlands.

Episode 1

Scottish offshore service provider MarineCo UK has placed an order at Damen Shipyards for two more High Speed Support Vessels (HSSVs). The company took delivery of Damen’s first-ever HSSV 2610 Twin Axe in June, MarineCo Shamal, and the second one, the MarineCo Mariah in the last week of December.

Read the full news entry.

Below a video of the 26 x 10 catamaran HSSV.

A video of the ship flooding and evacuation onboard:

A video of the evacuation operation:

A video of the ship on its side, stranded on the rocks:

Phase I of the construction of the Botlek Tank Terminal (BTT) has been completed. Last week, BTT discharged 4000 tonnes of biodiesel from a tanker and stored it. The next day, 3000 tonnes of  biodiesel were discharged from a tank barge and stored in the same tankpit.

Below a video of the BTT.