NYK-Baosteel sign 24-year charter contract

Tokyo: Nippon Yusen Kaisha has signed a 24-year charter contract with Baoshan Iron & Steel for the transportation of iron ore from Brazil to Maanshan in China. NYK will carry 800,000 tons of iron ore annually for the first four years of the contract, beginning end 2007. This amount will then increase to 1.2m tones per year with NYK using a new  300,000-ton Capesize bulk carrier ordered from Nantong COSCO KHI Shipping Engineering.

This contract is the fourth long-term contract exceeding 10 years signed between NYK and Bao Shan. The two companies previously concluded three long-term charter contracts for the transport of iron ore to China using bulk carriers of 180,000 tons, 200,000 tons and 230,000 tons respectively. [06/02/07]