shipping in order to help meet utah's increasing marine transportation requirements utah transport inc was formed during 1976 in june utah transport inc initiated an acquisition program which is intended to bring into balance utah's employment of owned and chartered vessels for transport of its mineral products the timing of the program was dictated by the generally de pressed condition of the ocean shipping industry which enabled utah to purchase six used vessels on very attractive terms the acquisitions represent a total invest ment of approximately 80 million the ships the oldest of which is four and one half years old range in size from 102,000 deadweight tons to 166,000-deadweight tons the 1 18,000-deadweight ton lake almanoris a dry bulk carrier but the others also named after california lakes have the capacity to haul either dry bulk or liquid cargoes this feature provides greater management flexibility because the com bination carriers can serve a broader mar ket although the newly acquired vessels initially will transport utah's coking coal to europe it is anticipated that they also will haul iron ore products to europe and the united states once deliveries begin from the samarco mine in brazil two new 128,000-deadweight ton dry bulk carriers owned by two corporations in which utah development company and japanese interests each have a 50 share made their maiden voyages during 1 976 managed by utah these ships trans port utah's australian coking coal to eu rope and iron ore from the atlantic basin to japan shipping activities of 46%-owned mar cona corporation operated at a loss dur ing 1976 deployment of marcona's fleet much of which was idled in 1975 by the loss of shipments from the expropriated peruvian iron ore mine continued to be hampered by the generally depressed shipping market with the expropriation of its peruvian iron ore mine in 1975 the shipping commitments of marcona's fleet were curtailed sharply at a time of gener ally depressed shipping market conditions as a result marcona has entered into a series of transactions which have reduced its fleet and the scope of its shipping operations before embarking upon a voyage to haul a grain cargo to amsterdam the 118,000 deadweight ton lake almanor drops an chor in the mississippi river near baton rouge utah's versatile fleet was pur chased primarily to transport mineral prod ucts however the grain cargo is an example oi the flexibility available tor the most efficient deployment of utah's vessels