Built for a purpose
- Builder / location
- Hyundai Heavy Industries, South Korea
- Original role
- Deep-water iron-ore transport
Why it was built
Berge Stahl was a highly specialised ore carrier. Its story is inseparable from the terminals able to receive a very large, deeply loaded bulk ship. Rotterdam used it to explain the importance of deep water to the port and to the steel industry served from its hinterland.
A long relationship with Rotterdam
The port’s 2016 annual report records its 249th and final Rotterdam arrival on 11 December 2016, after transporting nearly 90 million tonnes of iron ore there during its service. A repeated industrial route can be historically significant even when it is less glamorous than a liner’s maiden crossing.
Reading a bulk carrier’s dimensions
For an ore carrier, draft and cargo weight can be more decisive than the height of its superstructure. A long hull spreads the cargo along its length, while the loading condition determines how deeply it sits. The historical profile and its referenced disposal status remain available, but a scrapped ship is never assigned a current AIS position.
Historical information reviewed 9 September 2026. Documented journeys are not live vessel positions.