their first ship is an unlucky ship, page-13

From Age Newspaper

Fortescue in ore with ship set to sail



* Rebecca Le May
* May 13, 2008
*

FORTESCUE Metals Group's first iron ore shipment is about to set sail in a "test run" before the company's first "official" commercial shipment of 170,000 tonnes begins loading on Thursday.

While commissioning its port facilities, Fortescue has spent the past six days loading the 70,000 tonne Blumenau Panamax-sized vessel, which could be replaced immediately by a second Panamax ship to complete the commissioning.

Both 70,000-tonne shipments are bound for an unnamed Chinese customer. "It's not Baosteel (Fortescue's offtake partner) for these commissioning ships, it was a customer who was prepared to support us with the offer of a vessel at his cost," chief operating officer Graeme Rowley said. "These vessels are pretty expensive and we didn't turn around this vessel fast because the obvious thing we were doing was stopping and starting loading, depending on how various problems came up as we went through the process.

"We're very fortunate that this customer was happy to take those costs."

Mr Rowley said Fortescue's first shipment to Baosteel, using the Chinese steel mill's MV Hengshan Cape-sized vessel, would be valued at about $11.6 million.

It will be ready to receive its ore at 9am West Australian time on Thursday.

"Assuming everything goes according to plan, it should take about 30 hours to complete the loading.

"The passage will take 12 to 14 days," Mr Rowley said