Brazilian mining giant Vale has unvailed capital expenditure of $12.9bn for 2010, including $2.7bn destined for the company's rail, ports and maritime shuttle system.
Total capital expenditure is up 43% year-on-year but lower than the $14bn it had originally earmarked for 2010 before the financial crisis hit global commodity prices.
After meeting with Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Monday to discuss the company's investment plans, Vale president Roger Agnelli told reporters that next year's capital expenditure was at the limits of what the group could afford in the current economic climate.
"With this volume of investments we are operating at he limits of our capacity as a company," he said. "With these investments production in 2014 will be 450m tonnes this year."
Almost two-thirds of the investments will take place in Brazil with port investments rising to the top of the company's logistic agenda in 2010.
As the company prepares its infrastructure to receive a fleet of VLOCs from 2011, its main priority at home is to upgrade its iron ore loading facility in Ponta da Madeira, in the northeast of the country.
An upgrade of the company's existing three piers and storage facilities will allow its northern Carajás mine to increase production by 40m tonnes a year by 2012.
A total capital expenditure of $11.3bn – of which $7.8bn will be channelled to rail and port facilities over the next five years – will add another 90m tonnes per year in production capacity to Vale's northern system by 2015.
In total, Vale plans to invest $2.6bn in its port facilities over the next five years – an investment it claims will be the "largest investment in port infrastructure in Latin America".