Brazilian miner and iron ore producer Vale halted operations at its Malaysian distribution center, following a fire on Friday, the company said. The distribution center serves as the company’s supply center in Asia, where it also stores and blends the iron ore produced in Brazil.
Vale said the fire hit the facility’s iron ore iron ore conveyor belt system, causing “material damages,” although the company said operations should resume in 10 to 15 days.
Vale’s Malaysian distribution center helps the company reduce shipping times for iron ore from 45 days, if the product is sent from Brazil, to 10 days when sent from Malaysia.
Vale said it expects a “reduced impact” of iron ore shipments, as it was already expecting a 10-day scheduled maintenance at the terminal by the time of incident.