Brazil’s Mining Giant Vale to Launch WeChat Platform for Iron Ore Spot Sales in Yuan

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL –  The largest producer of iron ore and nickel in the world, Brazilian miner Vale SA, said on Monday, November 9th, it plans to launch an iron ore spot trading platform on Chinese mobile app WeChat with the Beijing Iron Ore Trading Center Corporation (COREX) in early 2021 to facilitate yuan-denominated transactions.

Vale said it would be able to streamline and speed up its iron ore spot sales to China via the WeChat mini-program, and that the two companies had signed a memorandum of understanding during the China International Import Expo currently taking place in Shanghai.

China, the world’s top steel producer, consumes more than one billion tonnes per year of iron ore, a key steelmaking ingredient. Rio Tinto, BHP Group and Vale have all started to sell iron ore to Chinese mills in yuan as China pushed to increase its influence over pricing.

Rio Tinto launched a WeChat program for portside iron ore spot trading in March.

Operated by Tencent Holdings Ltd, WeChat started out as a messaging service and now has more than one billion users globally. It is ubiquitous in China, where it is used for everything from paying utility bills to ordering pizzas.

Vale’s China press office said it could not currently disclose further details on how the program would work or what information clients could get from it.

Source: Reuters