Vale considers temporary closure of Malaysia iron ore terminalVale considers temporary closure of Malaysia iron ore terminal

The plan comes on the back of the threats posed by the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, where Malaysia has announced a total of 790 cases, the highest number in Southeast Asia.

Vale said the TRMT could be temporarily shut from Saturday until 31 March.

The mining firm is communicating with the local authorities to clarify supposed restrictions imposed by the government on transportation between cities, what could limit the access of workers to TRMT.

“In that scenario, vessels heading to TRMT will be redirected and redistributed among our blending facilities in China with no expected impact on production and sales volume in 2020, but with an impact on sales of approximately 800,000 tonnes in the first quarter of 2020. An immaterial cost increase is expected due to additional logistics,” Vale stated.

In 2019, the TRMT handled 23.7m tonnes of iron ore shipments.