COVID-19 is threatening to reduce Vale’s Q1 2020 sales by 800,000t (725,748mt).
The Brazilian miner announced that it might temporarily halt operations at its Teluk Rubiah Maritime Terminal (TRMT) in Malaysia from March 21-31 to protect employees from contracting COVID-19. If that occurs, vessels presently en route to TRMT will be redirected to among the company’s Chinese facilities and affect 800,000t of sales this quarter.
However, in a statement, the company added that calendar 2020 sales and production wouldn’t be affected.
Last year, TRMT’s iron ore shipments totaled 23.7mn mt.
Vale remains in contact with authorities about potential employee restrictions to TRMT.
The Malaysian Department of Minerals and Geoscience already suspended mining activities in three states from March 18-31, in an effort to contain COVID-19’s spread.