Brazil's cash-strapped mining giant Vale has sold four mega freighters to a Chinese consortium for 423 million US dollars, local media reported Wednesday.

The consortium is headed by ICBC Financial Leasing, a subsidiary of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

Vale, the world's largest iron ore exporter, announced three weeks ago its intention to sell its remaining 11 Valemax mega freighter ships, in the hope of raising 1.1 billion US dollars.

Valemax ships are a fleet of very large ore carriers owned or chartered by Vale to transport iron ore from Brazil to European and Asian ports, with a capacity of up to 400,000 tons each. The first Valemax vessel was delivered in 2011.

Vale is strapped for cash as a result of falling iron ore prices on the international market and the depreciation of the Brazilian real against the US dollar.

The company also faces multibillion-dollar fines for its liability for the Nov. 5 dam collapse that sparked the world's worst mining-related environmental disaster.

In the third quarter of 2015, the mining company reported a loss of 6.66 billion reals (about 1.75 billion dollars), which forced it to plan to cut back on investments and sell shares.