Iron ore steady with a chance of slipping as China out

Wednesday, 25 Jan 2012

Reuters reported that iron ore steadied with trading activity nearly halted as top market China remained shut recently for the Lunar New Year holiday blunting any impact from miner Vale decision to lift a force majeure on Brazilian shipments.
Vale, the world No 1 iron ore producer said it has resumed mining and export operations after rains eased in southeastern Brazil. Vale earlier this month declared force majeure on iron ore shipments from Brazil a legal clause that allows a company to break contractual obligations because of heavy rains that cut its output by around 2 million tonnes.

Mr Dhruv Goel managing director at iron ore trading firm SteelMint in India eastern Orissa state said there are hardly any deals in the spot market with the Chinese away for the holiday and chances are prices may slip marginally.

But Mr Goel said Chinese demand for lower grade Indian iron ore has improved recently and he expects it to continue after the holiday. He said that "Chinese buyers are interested in buying low grade from India, as cargoes from Australia and Brazil are generally high grade."

India biggest iron ore miner, NMDC Ltd has resumed operations in the central state of Chhattisgarh which accounts for two-thirds of its annual ouput of 25 million tonnes after protests disrupted railway movements for 10 days.

Local protests had forced NMDC to halt production and exports of iron ore from the mines. The protest was called off after the federal government agreed to improve the overall rail network in the Bastar region a predominently tribal area that has roughly a fifth of India iron ore deposits.

Reflecting a slump in Chinese buying, the Baltic Exchange main sea freight index which tracks rates to ship dry commodities fell to its lowest in more than three years on Monday.

(Sourced from Reuters)

Vale lifts force majeure on iron ore shipments

Tuesday, 24 Jan 2012

Vale informed that it is lifting force majeure effective January 23, 2012, on a number of its iron ore sales contracts.

Force majeure was declared on January 11, 2012 following heavy rainfall since mid December 2011 and continuing over the beginning of January in the Brazilian states of Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and Espírito Santo, that affected the Southern and Southeastern systems.

Rio Tinto lifts force majeure at Australian coal mine

Friday, 27 May 2011

Rio Tinto PLC has now lifted force majeure on sales of coal from the last of its Australian coal mines after recovering from flooding early in the year.

A spokesman for the company said that the clause, which releases a company from supply obligations due to circumstances beyond its control, was lifted at the London based company's Hail Creek mine in central Queensland state on May 12.

The spokesman said that force majeure was declared at Rio Tinto's four Queensland coking coal mines in late December following monsoon rains and lifted at three mines in February and March.

Hail Creek mine, located 90 kilometers southwest of Mackay, supplies steel mills in Asia and Europe. Rio Tinto has previously said hard coking coal production fell to 1.63 million metric tonnes in the first three months of the year, down 29% on the previous quarter and 12% on the same period a year earlier. (sourced Dow Jones)

Rio lifts force majeure on some Australian coal mines

Thu Feb 24, 2011 3:12am GMT
* Force majeure at Clermont, Hail Creek still in place
* Coal industry still in recovery from floods
* Dalrymple, Gladstone ports still shipping below capacity

PERTH, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Global miner Rio Tinto has lifted force majeure on its Blair Athol and Kestrel coal mines in Australia's northeast Queensland state but kept it in place for two other mines, Rio said on Thursday.

The mines had been under force majeure since late December due severe flooding in Queensland state that brought much of the state's coal mining industry to a halt.

Rio lifted its force majeure from Blair Athol on Friday and from Kestrel on Monday, a spokesman for Rio Tinto Coal Australia said.

"Force majeure remains in effect at Rio Tinto Coal Australia's other two mines in central Queensland: Clermont and Hail Creek," the spokesman said.

A force majeure is a legal let-out suspending sales obligations due to factors beyond a supplier's control

Several other major Queensland coal producers, including BHP Billiton , Anglo American , Xstrata , also invoked force majeure on their mines, which remain in place.

Australia is the world's largest exporter of coking coal, used for steelmaking, and Queensland state accounts for the majority of Australian coking coal production.

Most of the state's coal industry was shut in December and January as flood waters inundated pits, damaged rail lines and shut ports, and most experts predicted it could take until the end of the first quarter for the industry to return to normal.

Rail operator QR National , whose coal haulage lines link many of the inland mines in Queensland to export ports, said on Wednesday that 95 percent its rail lines are back up.

However, the lack of coal supplies to be railed in has Queensland's export ports running well below capacity.

Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal, the state's largest coal terminal, is currently shipping about 40 percent of normal coal volumes due to a lack of adequate coal, Jesse Knight, operations analyst at the terminal said.

Gladstone Port, the state's second largest coal terminal was shipping about 50 percent of normal volumes -- around 500,000 tonnes -- this week, spokeswoman Lee McIvor said.

The port's stockpiles stand at about 2 million tonnes, well under its capacity for 6 million tonnes in stock. (Reporting by Rebekah Kebede; Editing by Balazs Koranyi, sourced:Thomson Reuters)

Tags:Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal, coal operations analyst,
port of Gladstone, Anglo American Plc, Xstrata, QR National