Brazil’s CSN iron ore, container ports operate normally despite city’s request

Brazil’s Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional said April 19 its iron ore and the container port terminals operations are running at a normal pace, without interruptions, despite an act April 16 by local authorities at Itaguaí requesting their halt, alleging “various environmental irregularities.”

CSN operates two terminals at the Port of Itaguaí, in Rio de Janeiro: the bulk solids terminal (Tecar) and the container terminal (Sepetiba Tecon). Tecar has the capacity to export 45 million mt/year of iron ore, and it is where coke and coal used in steelmaking arrive. Sepetiba Tecon is a load hub port, the largest container terminal in Rio de Janeiro and one of the largest in Brazil in its segment. CSN, through its subsidiary CSN Mineração, is Brazil’s second-largest iron ore exporter after Vale.
Last week, the city of Itaguai fined CSN and its mining subsidiary for allegedly dumping industrial waste created during the production of iron ore indirectly into the ocean without adequate monitoring.

Moreover, the city said CSN operated with an environmental license that expired nine years ago.

CSN said it filed a precautionary measure on April 17 that guaranteed the continuity of port operations and suspensions of “illegal acts from the Municipality of Itaguaí against Sepetiba Tecon and CSN Mineração.”

Therefore, “there was no operational impact for CSN and CSN Mineração or any of its customers,” it said in the statement.

The company stressed that it does not recognize any of the charges and said “the oversight took place without legal basis and arbitrarily, without any opportunity to provide clarifying information or defense.” It added that a municipal government “does not have the jurisdiction to interdict a port with federal customs, duly licensed by the competent State Environmental Agency.”

It also said it was in total environmental compliance and said all of its environmental licenses for its port operations in Itaguaí were valid.
Source: Platts