China Merchants Energy Shipping (CMES) and COSCO have signed financial and transport co-operation pacts with Brazilian miner Vale.
The firms signed two three-party memorandums of understandings (MOUs) with Vale, while CMES also inked an expanded framework agreement with the miner for co-operation on seaborne cargo transportation and a long-term integrated logistics on 19 May.
The deals were signed during Premier Li Keqiang’s official visit to Brazil.
The MOUs focus on financial co-operation in iron ore shipping, while defining the basis for future co-operation between Vale and its Chinese partners. China EXIM Bank will provide a loan facility of up to USD1.2 billion to both COSCO and CMES to help the shipping companies’ provision of iron ore shipping services to Vale.
According to the expanded agreement signed between Vale and CMES, the former will sell four existing very large ore carriers to CMES. The detailed terms and contract conditions are still in discussion and the deal is expected to be concluded in the coming months.
The first framework agreement was previously signed with China Merchants Group on 26 September 2014.
COSCO Group and China Shipping Group announced earlier that they have formed a joint venture, named China Ore Shipping, to acquire four used Valemaxes from Vale for USD445 million.
This post was sourced from IHS Maritime 360: View the original article here.
