Brazilian iron ore miner Vale posted a net profit of $1.88 billion for first quarter of 2023, against $4.48 billion in the same period of 2022 and $3.74 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022.
In comparison to Q4 2022, net sales revenues declined by 29.4 percent to $8.43 billion, production costs declined by 30.8 percent to $4.95 billion, the gross profit declined by 27.2 percent to $3.49 billion and the operational profit declined by 17.5 percent to $2.88 billion.
Considering the destinations of sales, 7.7 percent was destined to North America, 12.7 percent to South America, 56.0 percent to Asia, of which 40.4 percent to China, 18.5 percent to Europe, 2.8 percent to the Middle East and 2.2 percent to other regions.
In the combined volume of iron ore and pellets, 10.15 million mt were destined to the Americas, 38.06 million mt to Asia, 5.17 million mt to Europe, 1.24 million mt to the Middle East and 1.04 million mt to other regions.
According to the company, the declining result reflects chiefly the lower prices of iron ore and pellets and reduced sales of iron ore fines during the period.
During Q1 2023, the iron ore and pellets sales of Vale were equivalent to 76 percent of its sales revenues.
