Vale Receives Endorsement for Vitória-Minas Construction

Vale has already been given the green light from Ibama for doubling 24 km of the Estrada de Ferro Vitória-Minas (EFVM). In all, the EFVM is 905 km long and has one of the highest system wide productivity indices. In addition to transporting nearly 40% of railway freight in Brazil, with more than 135 million tons transported per year, the railway operated the only long-distance passenger train with daily circulation for transporting nearly 3 thousand people between Vitória, in Espírito Santo state, and Belo Horizonte, in Minas Gerais state.

The construction work for doubling this section in the Santa Bárbara, Barão de Cocais and São Gonçalo do Rio Abaixo region was divided in two phases. The first phase, which foresees construction on four kilometers, is budgeted at $80 million and is already in the initial construction phase, with a 30-month long completion deadline. Construction work to expand the capacity of the other 20 km should begin at the beginning of next year.

Estrada de Ferro Vitória-Minas operations director, Carlos Quartieri  says that the EFVM is an important corridor for grain and iron and steel products, and doubling construction works will meet the growing demand of all railway freight. In order to enable service to Brucutu mine and other projects to increase ore production capacity in the region, the Costa Lacerda yard in Santa Bárbara was expanded last year.

Construction on the other Estrada de Ferro Vitória-Minas section was finished this year. This is the third Vale do Aço railroad line to be finished in August. 10 km of construction on the railway line was constructed within the railway operation area between the cities of Santana do Paraíso and Ipatinga, and a new railway station. Vale plans on expanding the Estrada de Ferro Vitória-Minas capacity by 20% until 2013. The railway capacity will go from a current 100 million to 120 million tons/year.