CVRD planning increase in prices and sales for 2003

CVRD planning increase in prices and sales for 2003

Brazilian iron ore producer Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD), last week stated that for this year they are planning to increase prices by 10% and sales by at least 5% from 163.9 million tonnes of previous year's sales record relying on the strong iron ore demand particularly from China. Despite CVRD claims that the rate of increase is reasonable, as at the beginning of last year ore prices decreased by 2.5% following a decline in the steel sector and thereafter steel demand rose in the last six months of 2002, it will require some negotiations for the market to accept new price levels. Added to that, CVRD expects a sales revenue lower than last year's record revenue of Real 15.2 billion ($4.78 billion) for the year 2003 as Real experienced an appreciation of %10 until now.