China Merchants Energy Shipping (CMES) has sealed a long term 27-year charter contract to transport iron ore for Brazil's state mining giant Vale, following an earliersimilar deal made by Coscocs.

The signing of the contract of affreightment between CMES and Vale was made on 21 March in Beijing.

The deal, scheduled to start in the first half of 2018, will see the deployment of CMES' fleet of 390,000 dwt valemaxes, which will carry approximately 16m tonnes of iron ore each year.

Last Friday, Coscocs also sealed a 27-year-long shipping charter contract with Vale to transport some 16m tonnes of iron ore per year.

The latest CMES-Vale deal marks the implementation of the strategic cooperation agreement made between the two companies back in September 2014, which mentioned a 25-year contract of afrreightment for 10 VLOCs, CMES said in a regulatory filing.