Johannesburg - Anglo American said it delivered the first iron ore on ship from its Minas-Rio project in Brazil.
The first cargo of more than 80,000 metric tons of the steel-making mineral was loaded at the port of Acu in Rio de Janeiro state and the vessel is en route to customers in China, London-based Anglo American said today in a statement.
The project will ramp up to its capacity of 26.5 million tons per year over the next 18 to 20 months, Paulo Castellari, chief executive officer of Anglo American’s iron ore-unit in Brazil, said in the statement.
“We believe that the outlook for our particular premium product remains attractive, despite the current weakness in the iron-ore price,” Anglo American chief executive Mark Cutifani said in the statement.
Prices for the steelmaking ingredient have more than halved since peaking in 2011, entering a bear market as producers including BHP Billiton are expanding supplies, pushing the market into a glut.
Anglo American raised capital expenditure for Minas-Rio to $8.8 billion (R96 billion) after an original estimate of $2.6 billion and wrote down $4 billion of the asset’s value in 2013.
Anglo American rose as much as 3 percent and traded 2.4 percent higher at 236 rand at 9:34 a.m. in Johannesburg. - Bloomberg News