Brazilian miner and iron ore producer Vale saw both its iron ore production and sales volumes decline in Q3 this year, all on a year-on-year basis.
Vale said iron ore output in Q3 reached 86.7 million mt, 17.4 percent down, year-on-year. Likewise, iron ore sales volumes in Q3 decreased 11.8 percent, year-on-year, to 74 million mt.
With the exception of copper and gold, Vale saw production figures in Q3 decline for most products, including iron ore, pellets, manganese, coal, nickel and cobalt.
Vale said pellet output in Q3 fell 19.8 percent, year-on-year, to 11.1 million mt. Manganese production in Q3 diminished 8.1 percent, year-on-year, 443,000 mt.
Vale said pellet sales volumes in Q3 fell 22.3 percent, year-on-year, to 11 million mt, while manganese sales in Q3 totaled 150,000 mt, 72.9 percent down, year-on-year.
As for the quarter-on-quarter analysis, Vale saw increased iron ore and pellet production and sales volumes for both products.
Vale said iron ore production in Q3 rose 35.4 percent, quarter-on-quarter, from 64.5 million mt in Q2 this year. Iron ore sales in Q3 increased 19.5 percent, also on a quarter-on-quarter basis, from 61.9 million mt.
Vale said it expects to resume about 50 million mt in annual capacity by 2021, as “several milestones were achieved and others are ongoing, including the approval of trigger tests on mines to resume dry processing operations and the authorization of trigger tests at the TFA Rail Terminal (Terminal Ferroviário de Andaime), an important step toward debottlenecking the Vargem Grande Complex logistics,” the company said.