Brazil mining giant Vale boosts strategic assets sale

Brazil's mining giant Vale said it sold all of its ordinary shares in the logistics firm Log-In for around 233 million reais ($101 million) Thursday. A company statement said the world's top iron ore producer auctioned off its 31.3 percent stake in Log-In -- 28,737,356 ordinary shares -- at 8.11 reais per share on the Sao Paulo bourse and will thus pocket 233 million reais. Log-In provides integrated solutions for port handling and door-to-door freight forwarding. Vale also announced Thursday the sale of its 44.25 percent stake in Fosbrasil, a purified phosphoric acid producer located in Sao Paulo state, to Israel Chemicals Ltd for $52 million. It said the two transactions were consistent with its bid to shed non-strategic assets to deal with falling iron ore prices and to finance its investments in 2014. The ton of iron ore reached $180 in 2011 but it will sell between $100 and $140 in the next two years, according to experts. This year, Vale sold assets worth $5 billion, including its stake in Norway's Norsk Hydro aluminum producer for $1.6 billion in November. Last week, it also sold for $100 million its stake in the Norte Energia consortium in charge of building the Belo Monte dam in the Amazon.