Brazil-based miner Vale has announced that it has declared force majeure on February 15 on a number of contracts for coal sales from Mozambique.
According to Vale's statement, high rainfall since early February 2013 and continuing over the last few days in Tete, Mozambique, has created serious challenges to the Linha do Sena railway, thus impacting the transportation of the miner's coal products. So far, the company estimates a loss of approximately 250,000 mt of metallurgical coal shipments.
Caminhos de Ferro Moçambique (CFM), owner of Serra-Beira railway, is taking all the necessary measures to restore the railway traffic and the situation is expected to be normalized by the end of this month.