Posted on 28 Aug 2020
Rio Tinto, the world’s second largest iron ore miner with core assets in Australia, will blend iron ore at the Beilun port under the jurisdiction of Ningbo Zhoushan Port Group (NZP Group) in East China's Zhejiang province to better serve the customers at the Yangtze River Delta and South China, it shared via WeChat in Chinese on August 25.
“This is the first time for Rio Tinto to carry out iron ore blending and spot trading at a port in the Yangtze River Delta and in South China after having the business model executed at several ports in North and Central China”, Rio Tinto stated in the sharing.
The product to be produced by Rio Tinto at the Zhoushan port will be Rio Tinto Blend Fines (RTBF), a blended product of its Canadian concentrates and medium-grade SP10 Fines, targeting to provide the markets with China in particular a more cost-effective variety, according to the company.
Rio Tinto produces high-grade and low-impurity fines and pellets at its Canadian operations via its subsidiary - Iron Ore Company of Canada.
The Beilun port is one of the main iron ore unloading terminals of NZP Group, capable of blending iron ore at the pace of 3,500 tonnes/hour, according to Rio Tinto’s sharing.
The blended ore product from the Zhoushan port will be serving the needs of those customers in South China, a Shanghai-based source close to Rio Tinto remarked.
Rio Tinto set up a subsidiary in China in June 2019 to take care of the portside spot trading and iron ore blending business in order to better serve the needs of the Chinese customers especially those small- to medium-sized steel mills with the variety of choices and the Yuan-priced trading, Mysteel Global understands.
In over a year, the subsidiary has developed more than 60 new customers through five ports including Qingdao, Lanshan, and Rizhao in East China, and Jingtang and Caofeidian in North China, according to the company.
Recently NZP Group has been attracting a lot of attention from the global iron ore miners, as just on the same day, NZP Group welcomed the world’s largest iron ore miner Vale to commission its 3 million tonnes/year blending centre for its GF88, a new product, at its other terminal - Shulanghu Ore Transfer Terminal, as reported. (The link to the full report of the Vale story is https://www.mysteel.net/article/5018019/Vale-commissions-3-mln-ty-grinding-hub-at-Shulanghu.html).
This has come as little surprise, though, as NZP Group is the only port management company in China that owns three berths for the 400,000 deadweight ton ore carriers or very large ore carriers (VLOCs), and it also serves as an important iron ore transfer base in Northeast Asia, as reported.
China has so far approved 11 VLOC terminals in the country, with the majority located in the provinces in East China including Shandong and Zhejiang, Mysteel Global understands.
In 2019, NZP Group posted a total cargo throughput including iron ore at 1.11 billion tonnes, or ranking the top in the the world for the eleventh year, according to its company website.
Written by Victoria Zou, zyongjia@mysteel.com
Edited by Hongmei Li, li.hongmei@mysteel.com
Source:Mysteel Global
