Vale’s 2023 iron ore output tops guidance, but sales fall

The firm produced 89.40 million metric tons of iron ore in the last three months of 2023, 10.6% more than a year earlier.

That took its full-year output to 321.15 million tons, above its guidance of 315 million tons of iron ore.

The volume of the steel-making ingredient shipped last year, however, fell 1.5% to 256.79 million tons.

Vale attributed the gap between output and shipments to a rebalancing of its inventories. “We stockpiled more than in the previous two years as part of our sales strategy,” Vale told Reuters.

Fourth-quarter iron ore sales dropped 4.1% from a year earlier, but grew 11.7% when compared with the previous three months.

The average realized price of Vale’s iron ore fines was $118.3 per ton in the quarter, up 12.6% from the third quarter.

Vale’s nickel output dropped both in quarterly and yearly terms, but totaled 164,900 tons in 2023, in line with its guidance of 165,000 tons.

The decrease was expected, Vale said, “considering the transition to underground mining at Voisey’s Bay as well as the planned furnace rebuild at Onca Puma.”

Copper production grew 29% from 2022 to 326,000 tons, backed by the ramp-up of its Salobo III project in northern Brazil, hitting Vale’s guidance of 325,000 tons.