Shanghai: The long-running saga over the on/off status of Vale's plans to build 12 very large ore carriers (VLOCs) of 400,000dwt each at China's Rongsheng Heavy Industries was finally settled with last week's statement from the Brazilian mining giant that it had won $1.23 billion of financing from two Chinese banks, the Export-Import Bank of China and the Bank of China Limited.
Vale originally announced the Rongsheng order worth $1.6bn in late 2008 but subsequently there have been periodic reports that the order has been cancelled. These were finally dispelled last week by Vale's statement that "the two Chinese financial institutions will provide a credit line of up to US$ 1.229 billion, some 80 per cent of the amount required to fund construction of the vessels."
The credit line has a 13-year total term, and the funds will be disbursed during the next three years according to the construction schedule, Vale added. [17/09/10]
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