淡水河谷超大型礦砂船有望靠泊中國港口
Brazilian miner Vale reached a deal on Friday to expand its fleet of extremely large ships for carrying iron ore, following a truce with China’s largest shipping company that raised the prospect of the vessels being allowed to dock at Chinese ports.
淡水河谷(Vale)週五達成了擴充其超大型鐵礦石運輸船船隊的協議，此前這家巴西礦商與中國最大航運公司達成了妥協，使此類船舶有可能獲准靠泊中國港口。
The very large ore carriers or VLOCs – dubbed Valemax in the shipping industry – were developed by Vale to help reduce its shipping costs, which are higher than its two Australian rivals, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, because of Brazil’s greater distance from Asian customers.
在航運業被稱爲Valemax的超大型礦砂船(VLOC)是由淡水河谷開發的，目的是幫助降低其運輸成本。由於巴西距亞洲客戶的距離更爲遙遠，淡水河谷的運輸成本要高於它的兩個澳大利亞競爭對手——力拓(Rio Tinto)和必和必拓(BHP Billiton)。But only the maiden ship had docked in China in 2011 when the Chinese Ministry of Transport banned them from Chinese ports, citing technical issues.
但Valemax只在2011年處女航時靠泊過中國港口，之後中國交通部以技術問題爲由，不讓此型船舶進入中國港口。
VLOCs are expected to be allowed back into Chinese ports this year after Vale reached an agreement this month with Cosco, China’s largest shipping group.
淡水河谷本月與中國最大航運集團中遠(Cosco)達成協議後，預計超大型礦砂船年內將被允許靠泊中國港口。Cosco had previously lobbied against VLOCs having access to Chinese ports, but Vale has agreed to transfer ownership of four of these vessels to the Chinese company. Cosco will also commission the building of a further 10 VLOCs.
中遠此前曾遊說反對超大型礦砂船進入中國港口，但淡水河谷同意將4艘此型船舶的所有權轉讓給中遠。中遠還將委託建造另外10艘超大型礦砂船。Vale will charter all 14 VLOCs from Cosco over the next 25 years. It has similar charter agreements with other shipping companies for 15 of the 31 VLOCs in the Vale fleet.
淡水河谷將在未來25年裏向中遠租用上述14艘超大型礦砂船。它與其他航運公司訂立了類似的租船合同，涵蓋淡水河谷船隊31艘超大型礦砂船中的15艘。Meanwhile, China Merchants Group, a Chinese conglomerate, will build 10 VLOCs and charter them to Vale over 25 years, Vale said on Friday.
與此同時，淡水河谷週五表示，中國企業集團——招商局集團(China Merchants Group)將建造10艘超大型礦砂船，並將它們租給淡水河谷。China’s shipping industry had lobbied against the VLOCs while freight rates were at their height, forcing Vale to transfer ore to smaller ships at ports including Subic Bay in the Philippines.
前些年運費較高時，中國航運業曾遊說反對超大型礦砂船，迫使淡水河谷在菲律賓蘇比克灣等港口將鐵礦石轉移至較小的船舶。Lower shipping costs stemming from its use of VLOCs will help Vale stay competitive as a growing glut in world iron ore mining capacity causes prices to drop.
隨着世界鐵礦石產能過剩現象越來越嚴重、導致價格下跌，超大型礦砂船所帶來的較低運輸成本將有助於淡水河谷保持競爭力。As iron ore output grows, an economic slowdown in China is depressing steel demand.
在鐵礦石產量增長之際，中國卻出現經濟放緩，這種局面抑制了鋼鐵需求。
