Since the beginning of this year, with the spread of the new coronary pneumonia epidemic worldwide, the global steel industry chain has been affected to a certain extent. Australia and Brazil are the main suppliers of iron ore in the world, and are also currently affected by the new coronary pneumonia epidemic. As of April 15th, Beijing time, a total of 6,440 cases of new coronary pneumonia were diagnosed in Australia, and a total of 61 deaths; a total of 25,262 cases of new coronary pneumonia were diagnosed in Brazil, and a total of 1532 deaths.

Since the outbreak, the four giants of iron ore production-Vale, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and FMG have taken a series of measures to ensure safe production and supply. Up to now, the production and operation departments of the four major miners have not yet experienced concentrated infection.

Supply: The impact of the current epidemic is not significant

According to data released by the General Administration of Customs, from January to February, China imported 107 million tons of iron ore from Australia, a slight increase of 850,000 tons year-on-year; China imported 36.07 million tons of iron ore from Brazil, a year-on-year decrease of 5.58 million tons. Since the new coronary pneumonia epidemic has not spread globally from January to February, the iron ore shipments in Australia and Brazil since March may better reflect the impact of the outbreak on iron ore supply. According to the data released by my steel network, in March, the shipment volume of iron ore in Australia and Brazil was 82.383 million tons, an increase of about 20% compared with the shipment volume of 69.058 million tons in March 2019. In the first week of April, Australia and Brazil shipped 22.98 million tons of iron ore, and in the second week it was 19.806 million tons, respectively higher than 16.04 million tons and 18.895 million tons in the same period of 2019. Although there are also special factors in 2019, judging from the actual number, the epidemic has little effect on the iron ore supply from March to the present.

As the overseas epidemic continues to spread, the measures taken by local governments or enterprises in various countries to control the epidemic will directly determine the subsequent production and supply of iron ore.

According to previous news, on April 8, Vale extended the maintenance period of the Voisey's Bay mining area in Labrador, Canada, for no more than 3 months. The Long Port Plant (LHPP) will continue to operate, and the plant will produce nickel and cobalt at the expected level using stock concentrate as raw materials. On March 23, the company decided to suspend the operation of the Malaysian Logistics Center (TRMT) from March 24. It is expected that it will not affect the production and sales of the whole year of 2020, but it may have a sales volume of about 500,000 in the first quarter. Tons of effects.

On March 24, Rio Tinto announced that it would suspend some business operations as the Governor of Quebec and the President of South Africa took separate actions to curb the spread of the new coronary pneumonia epidemic. In the Richards Bay Mining Area (RBM) in South Africa, Rio Tinto will reduce production in accordance with government instructions. All mining operations in the Richards Bay Mining Area will be suspended for 21 days from 24:00 on March 26. According to the latest news 21 days after the suspension period expired on April 15, the Richards mining area may continue to be suspended for 2 weeks. At the same time, Rio Tinto also delayed the resumption of construction of the Zulti South project. The Quebec government has identified industrial complexes including aluminum and mining as essential industries, and Rio Tinto is working to minimize business activities in the region.

FMG stated on March 23 that the Western Australian State Government will implement strict border controls to prevent the spread of the epidemic, and conduct 14-day quarantine observations for all people entering Western Australia. FMG's mining and operations at the Pilbara mine will continue, and iron ore transportation at Port Hedland will continue, and FMG will maintain its annual production target unchanged.

Response: attach great importance to active anti-epidemic

Since the outbreak of the new coronary pneumonia, the four major miners have taken relevant countermeasures earlier, even earlier than the local government. At present, Vale, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton have set up new coronary pneumonia topics on their respective websites or online platforms, and timely updated the development of the epidemic situation in their production and operation departments, and various health and safety guidelines that company employees should follow.

Rio Tinto

Due to job requirements, most Rio Tinto employees are required to work on the production and operation site. In order to ensure the safety of employees, Rio Tinto has adopted a number of prevention and control measures, including limiting the number of travel staff in production and operation units; conducting health screening questionnaire surveys and setting up a hotline so that medical consultants can perform various tasks including fatigue management on employees Health assessment; reduce the number of people attending pre-class meetings, and set a maximum number of signs for the meeting place; close all bars, gyms and swimming pools in the mine camp; cancel or adjust the buffet service of certain units; increase the supply of hand disinfection supplies and add Work station cleaning area, increase the cleaning frequency of high-frequency contact areas; introduce a pre-work arrangement to ensure that employees can go home to deal with health or family emergencies; equipped with on-site medical teams and temporary clinics; and so on.

At the same time, Rio Tinto requires that Rio Tinto ’s employees and contractors must not visit communities that are vulnerable to infection (including those with potential health risks or where the medical infrastructure is not sound without the approval of the appropriate community and Rio Tinto leadership Communities in remote areas), do their best to protect the safety of the community.

Vale

In order to avoid the spread of immunization, some Vale offices in China, Japan, Singapore and Switzerland adopted the remote administration mode of headquarters administration. Each region has a specific remote work system based on local conditions. At Vale ’s headquarters in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1,800 employees work remotely from home, and only a few work in the office to maintain basic services.

In terms of detecting the physical condition of employees, Vale will install 81 thermal imaging cameras at the entrance of its Brazilian factory in the next few weeks to conduct preliminary screening of people with new symptoms of coronary disease (fever). These cameras can automatically search for different points on the human face and find the most accurate point to detect the temperature. Persons or visitors who are detected as having fever symptoms will be sent home or sent to the health center after providing relevant information to Vale professionals.

At the same time, Vale announced that it will provide temporary assistance programs to suppliers and pay the funds to SMEs in advance. It is reported that in the next few days Vale will have about 160 million reais (about 31 million US dollars) for payment to SMEs.

BHP Billiton

Among BHP Billiton's 72,000 employees worldwide, a small number of confirmed cases of new coronary pneumonia have been found. These diagnosed patients have strictly followed the relevant regulations on isolation observation and are recovering very well. The small number of confirmed cases of BHP Billiton did not have any impact on the on-site production or operation.

At present, BHP Billiton is communicating with employees, local health departments and communities around the epidemic prevention process to ensure that anyone with symptoms can be safely isolated and helped.

Recently, in response to the epidemic situation, BHP Billiton has further upgraded the company's anti-epidemic measures, including reducing the number of staff going to specific areas, requiring non-essential business personnel to work remotely at home; regular health checks and temperature checks on workers; and high-risk workers Implement relevant protective measures, such as requiring employees with potential health problems, 50 years of age or older, or living in remote communities to work or take leave from home if feasible. In key business centers such as remote operation centers, BHP Billiton requires related staff to be divided into two groups and work in different areas of the office.

FMG

In terms of epidemic prevention and control, FMG has temporarily changed the shift system of mine operations employees, changing the changing of the guard mode from two weeks / one week to four weeks / two weeks-this will reduce the trip to and from the mine by about 40%; At-risk and non-critical employees work at home. In addition to special business needs, Australian office employees work at home; add additional charter and bus services; cancel non-operating employees' international and domestic travel schedules due to tolerance; the Western Australian Department of Resources announces Suspend the round-trip travel of mine shift employees between Western Australia and New South Wales, temporarily relocate employees living in New South Wales to Western Australia; temporarily close the nursery at FMG's Perth office, and do not allow outside visitors to enter ; Make adjustments to mine breakfast, dinner, and lunch boxes to reduce exposure to food and tableware; implement strict hygiene and safety safeguards in all mine services; provide additional cleaning services for all mines, camps, and offices; All small businesses provide a 14-day payment deadline and work with suppliers to meet cash flow challenges.