Vale increased its iron ore production in the first quarter of 2015 by 4.5 percent year-on-year, from 74 million mt to 77.4 million mt, the company said on Wednesday.
Pellet production registered a two-digit growth in the quarter, Vale said. The raw material’s output rose 14.7 percent from 9.9 million mt in Q1 2014 to 11.3 million in Q1 2015.
However, iron ore output in Q1 was 10.3 percent lower when compared to Q4’s total of 86.2 million mt. Vale said the lower quarterly output was a result of the “seasonality related to the weather”.
The Carajas mine registered the best quarterly output performance, Vale said, adding it produced 27.5 million in the period, 17.8 percent up, year-on-year, but 21 percent down quarter-on-quarter.