Owendo, deepwater port, northwestern Gabon, on the north shore of the Gabon Estuary; it serves the national capital, Libreville (9 miles [15 km] north-northwest), and was designed to handle ore vessels.
The engineering is staggering: three enormous robotic machines, two to scour the bottom and a third to vacuum this dislodged ore up to surface vessels where it will be transferred to China for processing.
Built in South Korea as a supertanker for transporting oil and iron ore, the six-month-old vessel was refitted in the wake of the BP oil spill with 12, 16-foot-long intake vents on the sides of its bow designed to skim oil off surface waters.
Bulk carriers are vessels that carry cargoes such as grain, iron ore, sugar, bauxite, or coal.
Transportation bottlenecks ranked among the biggest problems that alarmed Chinese officials in the spring of 2004, as bulk cargo vessels carrying iron ore and other raw materials had to wait up to a month to unload at overcrowded Chinese ports, while Chinese railroads proved incapable of carrying from mines all the coal that southern power plants needed.
Over the last two weeks BHP Billiton, Vale, and Rio Tinto gave investors hope that a bottom had finally been reached, as they actively chartered Capesize ships, which are the largest vessels, to transport iron ore to China.
Modern crucibles may be small laboratory utensils for conducting high-temperature chemical reactions and analyses or large industrial vessels for melting and calcining metal and ore; they may be made of clay, graphite, porcelain, or a relatively infusible metal.
The deal makes Staples the world's largest direct distributor of office supplies to companies.Freight expectationsThe Baltic Capesize index, which measures the cost of chartering huge ocean-going vessels used to transport iron ore and coal, briefly hit record highs.
It had been sailing from Puerto Rico with a full load of iron ore and, as it approached the hurricane, the vessel changed directions and slowed down.
