Metal Products News
- CVRD, Shougang plan joint venture: report
Date: 5-Jan-2007 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
BRAZIL'S Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD), the world's largest iron ore producer, plans to set up a venture in China to ship iron ore to the nation's booming market, domestic media reported.
The joint venture with Shougang, China's fifth-biggest steelmaker, will transport iron ore from Brazil to a new Shougang plant under construction in North China's Hebei Province, the China Daily reported.
'The move is designed to cut freight costs to offset mounting iron ore prices and secure a stable supply,'Chen Hanyu, a Shougang executive, said in the report.
The price of iron ore is a major issue for Chinese steel mills such as Shougang, which has said it plans to import 15 million tons of iron ore this year, up 20 percent from 2006.
Few details were available on the planned joint venture, but the newspaper said it planned an iron ore fleet with vessels boasting a loading capacity of at least 300,000 tons each.
Shougang's existing fleet currently has smaller vessels with loading capacity of less than 200,000 tons, according to the report.
The plant to be supplied by the venture, in Hebei's Caofeidian, a port city on Bohai Bay, will be completed in 2008 with an annual production capacity of 8 million tons, it said.
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