iron ore up again!, page-24

Fortescue sends off largest ore shipment
PAUL GARVEY THE AUSTRALIAN DECEMBER 07, 2013 12:00AM

ANDREW Forrest's Fortescue Metals Group has farewelled the largest ever single iron ore shipment out of Australia.

The Liberia-registered Hugo N left Fortescue's berths at Port Hedland late on Thursday loaded with 263,962 tonnes of iron ore, setting a record for a single shipment.

The ship, which is carrying enough ore to build four Sydney Harbour Bridges, is bound for the Chinese port of Qingdao.

At current iron ore prices, and allowing for the discount Fortescue's ore incurs due to its lower quality, the cargo is likely to be worth about $35 million.

The record reinforces Fortescue's argument that the bigger volumes capable of being loaded on to modern vessels, coupled with improved efficiencies, can help Port Hedland smash through its accepted shipping limitations in the coming years. Port Hedland, one of the world's largest iron ore loading ports, is said to have a notional maximum shipping capacity of 495 million tonnes a year.

But Fortescue chief executive Nev Power said this week that he believed the port could ultimately export more than 650 million tonnes a year.

Last month, about 28 million tonnes of iron ore was shipped out of the port, taking the total for the first 11 months of the year to 288.5 million tonnes.

The bulk of that output is from BHP Billiton and Fortescue, the port's two main residents.

The benchmark iron ore price was trading at $US139.70 a tonne yesterday. The price has now gained more than 25 per cent since June and is up more than 60 per cent since its slump in September last year.

Fortescue is in the final stages of expanding the annual capacity of its Pilbara iron ore mine and infrastructure network to 155 million tonnes.