| Brazilian mining giant Vale
will have China and South Korea build its new giant bulk carriers as
domestic Brazilian shipyards do not have capacity to take the order, Vale
CFO said on Tuesday.
"So far we have booked 19 Valemaxes,"
Guilherme Cavalcanti told Reuters. "The first was already delivered
and there are 18 more to come. They are being produced in China and
Korea."
Although Vale looked at Brazilian shipyards
to have the ships built, they were already busy with orders from Petrobas
or other companies, a spokeswoman for Vale said.
Vale's shipping strategy mainly targets
cutting freight costs from Brazil to top iron-ore importer China, in order
to boost competitiveness against rival diversified miners Rio Tinto and
BHP Billiton .
"Our target is to keep the difference
in transport costs from Brazil to China compared with Australia to China
low," Cavalacanti said.
Vale rerouted its China-bound first giant
bulk carrier Vale Brasil to Italy on its maiden voyage.
Vale said its first 400 000 t ship Vale
Brasil was diverted to Italy for commercial, not political, reasons and to
allow time to finalise talks for future port deals.
There had been speculation among traders
that the Vale Brasil was unable to berth at Dalian, China, due to pressure
from China's domestic steel industry who had urged the authorities to
protect their commercial interests.
Vale said at the time that some details
were yet to be finalised with port authorities of Dalian to grant Vale
Brasil access to the port, adding that Taranto was the first and so far
only port to have granted formal access for the vessel.
Vale said it expected Vale China, the first
vessel of the Valemax class totally produced in China and financed by
Chinese financial institutions, to have a Chinese port as its first
destination.
Source: Mining Weekly |
