Jan 2 2007
Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD), the world’s largest iron ore producer, has concluded the iron ore and blast furnace pellet price negotiations for 2007 with Ilva S.p.A (Ilva), the largest Italian steel maker.
As an outcome of these negotiations, iron ore prices for Southern System fines (SSF) and Carajás Fines ( SFCJ ), FOB Tubarão and Ponta da Madeira, respectively, increased by 9.5% relatively to the 2006 reference prices and the new reference prices, on a metric ton (mt) basis, are US$ 0.8146 per fe unit for the SSF and US$ 0.8470 per fe unit for the SFCJ.
Regarding the pellet prices, the blast furnace pellet prices FOB Tubarão and Ponta da Madeira increased by 5.28% relatively to the 2006 reference prices and the new reference prices, on a metric ton (mt) basis, are US$ 1.1796 per fe unit for the Tubarão pellets and US$ 1.2108 per fe unit for the Ponta da Madeira pellets.
CVRD reinforces its commitment with clients, investing a substantial amount of resources in increasing production capacity. Despite the sharp rise of investment costs, the Company has managed to increase its iron ore production by 52 million tons over the last couple of years, reaching a total output of approximately 263 million tons in 2006. Our production is expected to reach 300 million tons in 2007 and we will continue to invest to add new capacity of high quality iron ore to meet client needs in the near future.