With prices at five-year lows, the Malacca Strait terminal at Teluk Rubiah will stock and blend ore to compete against rivals BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.

Sanford C Bernstein analyst Paul Gait told Bloomberg: “Vale is significantly farther away from the main centres of demand than its Australia competitors.

“What Vale can do is to lower the apparent cost of logistics, shrink the world, if you will, and make distance not matter so much.”