Vale Malaysia Minerals Sdn Bhd (VMM), a subsidiary of Brazilian mining group Vale SA, has awarded the BEUMER Group an order to supply 16 overland conveyors. This is the largest order in the conveying and loading systems product segment in Beumer’s history. Vale intends to set up an iron ore distribution centre in Teluk Rubiah, Manjung District, in Perak.

At the facility, iron ore will arrive from Brazil and then be blended and shipped to the customers throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Vale wants to use the BEUMER troughed belt conveyors off the Malaysian coast, in the Strait of Malacca, for transporting iron ore from very large ore carriers (VLOC) to smaller vessels in a specially designed port and storage facility. The order is worth some $100 million for the BEUMER Group. Construction work is well underway, with the loading terminals expected to go into operation in 2014. A second expansion phase will run until 2019.