Vale leads Brazil's iron ore expansion with largest project

Sao Luis, Brazil

TWO kilometres out to sea, workers battle treacherous currents to build a huge dock capable of loading the largest iron ore ships on earth, a vital step as Brazil's Vale fights for dominance in a tumbling market.

The work in the northeastern city of Sao Luis is a small part of an iron ore project that stretches 1,000 kilometres from the Amazon rainforest in Para to the Atlantic coast and costs almost twice as much as the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.

The mammoth undertaking will secure Vale SA as the world's number one producer of the main raw material in steel making. In a cut-throat market where prices have halved since last year, it …