Japanese steelmakers Nippon Steel Corporation (Nippon Steel) and Sumitomo Metal Industries, Ltd. (Sumitomo Metals) have announced that they have decided to invest to expand capacity at Cape Lambert port by 70 million mt per year, along with the replacement of existing port facilities which are owned by the Robe River joint venture in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
While Cape Lambert is currently under construction to increase its designed capacity from 80 million mt to 133 million mt per year, the port expansion will further increase its capacity to 203 million mt per year, with the first ore shipment scheduled for the first half of calendar year 2015.
Meanwhile, the Japanese trading company Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (Mitsui) stated that it will invest A$1.5 billion for the port expansion through its wholly-owned subsidiary Mitsui Iron Ore Development Pty. Ltd.
The Robe River JV is 53 percent owned by Australia-based miner Rio Tinto. While Mitsui owns 33 percent in the joint venture, Sumitomo Metals and Nippon Steel own 3.5 percent and 10.5 percent respectively.