Citic Pacific Ltd, an arm of China’s biggest state owned investment company, said that iron ore exports from its Australian project will begin in the latter part of the year, a delay from a previous plan.

Citic Pacific in a statement said that the operation components for the first production line should be ready by the end of July.

Citic Pacific building a 28 million tonne iron ore project in Australia’s Pilbara region, in August said it planned to start shipping concentrate from the mine in the first half of 2011. The mine had suffered from cost overrun, with the company in May saying building costs jumped by USD 835 million.

The statement added that “Export of iron ore is expected towards the latter part of the year.”

It said that “Executives met with contractors and suppliers last week, where they all expressed strong commitment to put all necessary resources into the project to enable the start of operation according to plan.”

(Sourced from Bloomberg)