iron ore continue and shipping also has provided the capital for fulfilling the housing medical and educational needs of the community industrial disturbances continue to hamper peruvian operations and con sequently the 1973 shipment level of 8.9 million tons was 200,000 tons lower than shipments in the previous period early in 1973 marcona concluded dis cussions with japanese interests which were intended to lead to construction of new pelletizing plants in peru the capital for which would be provided by the japanese the agreement required approval of the project by the peruvian government but this approval was not received within the allotted time cur rently it is not known whether the project can be restructured satisfactorily marcona's new zealand venture consists of mining iron-bearing coastal sands through the use of a hydraulic dredge then in slurry form the iron ore is concentrated and pumped offshore to specially designed ships current year shipments of approximately one million tons are equal to those of last year shipping the initial ocean shipping activities of marcona were undertaken to transport peruvian iron ore products to marcona's customers throughout the world in satisfying this objective and in seeking to fill the shipping needs of others marcona has brought under its control a sizeable fleet of vessels in addition to those ships employed under numerous chartering arrangements marcona sub sidiaries own a total of 12 large carriers with a combined capacity of 1.2 million deadweight tons two of these ships a 70,500 ton self-discharging dry bulk carrier and a 99,700 ton ore-oil combina tion carrier were acquired in the current year ten of the 12 owned vessels have the capability of transporting oil as well as dry cargoes and two are outfitted with marconaflo equipment which allows the use of this unique and efficient method of handling slurried ores with this cargo flexibility marcona's shipping operations have been in an advantageous position to benefit from a continual expansion in the demand for transportation of natural resources marcona's shipping earnings which were not materially changed from the prior year continued to provide an important contribution to utah's profits utah arranges the ocean transportation for copper concentrate production from the island copper mine and for that of australian coking coal to european cus tomers these activities in the past have consisted of arranging and administering contracts and schedules with vessel owners however two 126,000 ton dry bulk carriers for utah's use are now in the early stages of construction in a japanese yard as a result of current year activities each of these ships will be owned by a new corporation in which utah holds a 50 interest and under charter to utah will carry coking coal from australia to europe then under charter to the other owner of the new corporations they will deliver iron ore from the atlantic basin to japan iron ore pellets from peru provide a premium product for steel manufacturers ocean shipping of a variety of iron ore commodities and other resources is an important phase of marcona's operations and these capabilities were expanded with the recent acquisition of the 70,500 ton self-discharging marcona conveyor