Brazilian miner Vale's sales manager Sergio Espeschit stated that Vale has made its first shipment of iron ore pellets, consisting of 77,000 mt, to Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, from its $1.35 billion pelletizing plant and distribution centre in Sohar, Sultanate of Oman. This shipment is a part of a recently signed contract to supply 34 million mt of pellets to SABIC.
Vale and SABIC have been business partners since the establishment of the SABIC-Hadeed plant in Al Jubail in 1982. With the Sohar plant, Vale reduced the delivery time to SABIC's plant from 35 days to two days.
SABIC is one of the world's leading manufacturers of metals and its steel production has increased by more than fivefold to 5.2 million mt.
Vale started pellet production at an annual capacity of 4.5 million mt in April this year. The entire two-unit pelletizing plant will be fully operational by November of the current year, producing a total of 9 million mt of iron ore pellets annually.