Mitsubishi Materials announced on Tuesday the firm expands berth for ore carrier at Naoshima copper smelter in Kagawa. Through the 3 billion yen investment, the smelter can accept ore carrier with 60,000 tonnes of load capacity compared with current 20,000 tonnes. The firm already started the expansion last week to complete by late May 2013.
The smelter’s berth can accept vessel with 185 meters length, 30.5 meters width and 9.7 meters draft. Through the expansion with dredging, the smelters will accept vessel with 190 meters length, 32.3 meters width and 12.27 meters draft. The firm tries to stabilize the ore import transport through the expansion along with the optimum shipping schedule. The expansion also allows larger vessels to export copper slag for offshore cement makers. International copper ore carrier gets larger due to larger Chinese smelters. The larger carrier contributes to lower freight cost and shipping efficiency. Copper ore suppliers of Escondida and Los Pelambres of Chile for Mitsubishi Materials reorganize the fleet with larger vessels.
