Vale's port terminal Ponta da Madeira, in northeastern Brazil, and the Chinese Qingdao port signed a cooperation agreement for the increase of iron ore handling between the terminals, Vale said Wednesday.

The agreement "paves the way for a growth of iron ore trade between Brazilian port terminal and Chinese port," said Vale in a statement, adding the deal aims to intensify the exchange of information, best practices and studies of common interest, plus mutual benefit in relation to trade and promotion of maritime routes between the two countries.

"Including evaluation of opportunities to improve transportation and logistics services targeting increment of iron ore volumes; cooperation on port development, planning and management; processes optimization and productivity improvement; utilization and promotion of low-carbon products and green initiatives to improve logistic processes," the miner said.

Ponta da Madeira terminal is the main port to ship production from Vale's Carajas mines, located in the north of Brazil, set to produce 120 million mt this year.

According to the company, it has capacity to berth up to five ships at the same time, used mainly to export iron ore, manganese, concentrate of copper and pig iron. The terminal shipped 105 million mt of iron ore in 2013 of a total of 112 million mt in products shipped.

The Port of Qingdao, located on the east coast of northern China, receives more than 100 million mt of iron ore a year, according to Vale.

Source: Platts

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