The Study On The Impact Of Large Scale Ship On Transportation Of Imported Iron Ore Of China

For a long time, the steel industry has been a pillar industry for China’s economy. As the primary raw materials of steel industry, it is of great significance to protect the supply of iron ore supply of iron ore. However, neither the quality nor the quantity of China’s iron ore can be able to meet the needs of rapid development of China’s steel industry, thus, a large number of iron ore would be imported from other countries each year. Among several iron ore import countries such as Brazil, Australia, India and South Africa, although the quality of iron ore in Brazil is the best, the iron ore imports from Brazil is restricted because of the great distances and high transport costs. To overcome these disadvantages, Brazil in 2011 developed the very large ore carriers (VLOC) of 400,000 tons, and in 2014 signed a framework agreement with China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO) on iron ore transport strategic cooperation. The agreement means the 400,000-tons VLOC will call at China’s ports, which will have a big impact on iron ore market and transport network in China. Therefore, it is very important to select transport mode of importing iron ore, considering with the demand for iron ore importing, shipping operating cost and port condition.Against the background of 400,000-tons VLOC calling at China’s port, the paper studied transportation structure of imported iron ore from iron ore, including the studies of the international iron ore trade, situation import and export of iron ore, China’s iron ore trade situation and trends, and major trade routes circumstances. The shipping ability change would be analyzed through iron ore supply and demand market, carrier types and development trend. Then the economic benefit of main ore carries was also studied. By prediction, if the ore carries of 400000-tons has not gone into service, market share of iron ore imported from Brazil was decreasing with average 0.41 percentage year, its market share in 2015 is about 21.3%. The paper established the model of transportation route and mode of imported iron ore, and optimized routes and modes combining transiting and unloading. The results show that, from the perspective of minimum cost once the ore carries of 400000-tons go into service, the importing percentage from Brazil and the transportation mode will change, and the port which can be loading/unloading 400,000-tons VLOC will get more cargo. The transiting and lightening will be a selection to iron ore transportation, but many handling and unloading operation will add extra cost, which would decrease scale economies of large ore carries. And the neighboring ports and steel plants would become the direct beneficiaries. These results will propose reference for government, steel industry, ports and transportation optimization.