Brazilian miner Vale has reported its best first quarter ever, earning net profits of $6.83 billion in 2011, compared to $1.604 billion during the same period in 2010, an increase of 326 per cent.
Despite adverse weather conditions and natural disasters, “Vale has improved its operational performance compared to the first quarter of 2010 in almost all products, such as iron ore, pellets, manganese, ferroalloys, coal, nickel, copper and cobalt, allowing us to continue to benefit from a strong global demand for minerals and metals,” reads the first-quarter report
Iron ore production reached 71.5 million metric tonnes (Mt), a 3.7 per cent increase from the same quarter in 2010, a year in which Vale reached an all-time high output of 308 Mt, the report notes. Vale indicates it will continue to pursue a goal of completing 322 Mt in 2011.
“Pellet output reached a record level for the first quarter, at 12.5 Mt, thus surpassing the mark of 10.8 Mt achieved in the first quarter of 2008,” reads the report. “Nickel operations also showed a good performance in spite of the challenges, which included some operational issues.”
Those issues resulted from a furnace problem at the Copper Cliff smelter, which will remain shut down for a minimum of 16 weeks, the report indicates.
The shutdown “is expected to generate an estimated output loss of 15,000 tonnes of finished nickel, accounting for 5 per cent of our total nickel production planned for 2011,” states the report. “Finished nickel production from Sudbury in the first quarter of 2011 was 14,300 tonnes, up 6,000 tonnes from the fourth quarter of 2010, reflecting the ramp-up of production following the end of the labour interruption.”
Those numbers reflect an increase of 71.8 per cent at the Sudbury operations. Vale's total finished nickel production was 10.3 per cent lower in the first quarter of 2011 than the fourth quarter of 2010, but was 26,100 tonnes higher (77.5 per cent) than the first quarter of 2010.
Manganese production was 4.4 per cent higher than the fourth quarter of 2010, while coal production reached 1.42 Mt.
Copper production decreased by 7.6 per cent on a quarter-to-quarter basis.
Cobalt production was 580 Mt, a decrease of 7 per cent, a reflection of the shutdown of furnace #2 at the Copper Cliff smelter.
Production of platinum and palladium in the first quarter was 129,000 troy ounces, 68,000 troy ounces higher than in the fourth quarter of 2010 and 125,000 troy ounces higher than in the first quarter of 2010.
The company is predicting increased growth, based on demand from China, which remains Vale's largest importer of iron ore.
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