Rains hamper Vale iron ore shipments in Brazil

Sunday, 30 Jan 2011
Heavy rains over recent weeks have interrupted Brazilian miner Vale's shipments of 600,000 tonnes of iron ore from Brazil and 500,000 tonnes of coal from Australia.

Mr Roberto Castello Branco director of investor relations said the shipments were expected to be made up over the next couple months. He said that the iron ore delays were relatively small compared to the company's expected production in 2011 of 311 million tonnes.
The coal delays will have a greater effect on operations, given that Vale expects to produce around 5 million tonnes of coal in 2011 in Australia.

Heavy rains in Brazil this month caused floods that killed hundreds of people and slowed port operations in some places. Branco said the company last year prepared contingency plans to ensure that rains had only a limited effect on shipments.(sourced:reuters)