Venezuela's iron ore miner CVG Ferrominera Orinoco has resumed pellets shipments to some local hot-briquetted iron producers, the company said.
The iron ore producer restarted its 3.3 million mt/year pellet plant in the last week of December and has been producing at a daily average of 8,000 mt. It had been mothballed since January 2013.
FMO confirmed it has shipped in late February around 21,500 mt of pellets aimed to reactivate production of the HBI plant Briquetera del Caroni (BriqCar).
According to a source from BriqCar, the company now expects to restart production anytime soon this month. "Added to this, steelmaker Sidor committed to supply us around 1,500 mt/day of pellet, which would help to avoid stoppages," he said. The amount sent by FMO will allow BriqCar to continue to produce for 20-25 days.
Steelmaker Sidor had tried to allocate part of its pellet production to HBI producers while FMO's plant was offline, but the allocation was short-lived. Sidor's 8 million mt/year pellet plant has been producing at low rates since mid-year.
One source at FMO said others HBI producers Comsigua and BriqVen -- the latter currently on a maintenance program -- are also waiting for the pellets supply to keep operations at regular rates.
"Around 30% of the nation's HBI production will be destined to the domestic market, while 70% will be allocated to exports," said the BriqCar source.
Source: Platts
- metaljunction »
- Metal News
Metal News & Events
METALJUNCTION PUBLICATIONS
Coal Insights (English) Monthly
Coal Insights is a ready reckoner for anyone associated with coal. This publication is aimed at tracking everything related to coal in India.
India Coal Market Watch(English) Monthly
ICMW is a one-stop source for all news, data and research pertaining to coal demand, consumption, stocks, spot- and long-term prices with respect to the Indian Market.
India Steel Market Watch (English) Monthly
ISMW is a brand new high-end steel market report, covering all aspects of the steel industry in India.
Steel Insights(English) Monthly
Steel Insights delves into various facets of the domestic and global steel industry such as market fundamentals, raw material price trends, price forecasts etc.