Bigger ships to take ore to China
The company, which last summer won the battle for Canada's Inco with a bid of £9.4bn, has ordered four ore carriers with a capacity of 388,000 tonnes.
The first of them, to be named Chinamax, will be ready in 2011.
José Carlos Martins, head of CVRD's iron ore division, said the aim was to build even bigger ships with a capacity of 500,000 tonnes in the future.
He said the carriers would be used to transport iron ore to China and would come back empty. This would be cheaper than the current freight prices.
The price from Brazil to China stands at more than $55 (£27) a tonne - a 149% increase compared with June last year. Mr Carlos Martins said he thought it would cost about $12 a tonne once the company used its own ships for a Brazil to China shuttle service.
The strong growth of Chinese steel production has created a long term imbalance in the standard freight routes. The volume of iron ore being transported to China has grown more than the volume coming back the other way, which is why spot freight costs have risen so fast.
Chinese imports of iron ore have almost doubled in a few years. In 2004, the country imported 220m tonnes; this year it is expected to import about 400m tonnes.
