Vale close to empty on iron ore supply
September 28th, 2008 | by mantrionline |Cia. Vale do Rio Doce said it has almost no stockpiles of the steelmaking raw material at its ports, signalling possible delays in shipments.
“We’ve got virtually zero stocks of iron ore at our ports,” chief executive officer Roger Agnelli said Friday. While the company has made no decision to halt shipments to China, “we don’t even have one ton of stocks,” Agnelli said.
Negotiations with Chinese steelmakers over a possible price increase this year are proceeding “calmly,” and any suggestion that the two sides have been arguing is “a lot of hot air,” Agnelli said.
Chinese steelmakers won’t buy from Vale in the “short term,” the China Iron and Steel Association said Thursday. Vale wants to raise prices to match what European clients are paying. The association says that’s “unreasonable” because of slowing steel demand from automakers and builders.
