Brazil's CVRD Bets on China Just as Demand for Steel May Cool

摘要

An explosion shakes the red earth at a 5-kilometer-wide (3.1-mile-wide) Carajas mine owned by Cia Vale do Rio Doce. Trucks rumble through Brazil's rain forest with 250- metric-ton loads bound for a 4-mile-long processing plant. From there, loaders transfer the ore to trains for the 533-mile journey to a port in northern Brazil. Vale, the world's biggest iron ore producer, is running at full tilt - and even that isn't fast enough. The reason: China. "Every day, I get several calls from clients desperate for ore, and I have to say no," says iron ore sales director Nelson Silva, 48, motioning to employees answering the phones at Vale's Rio de Janeiro office. "My staff probably gets another dozen."