Brazil-based miner Vale has announced its operational results for the third quarter and the first nine months of the current year.
Accordingly, the company has reported iron ore production of 88.7 million mt in the third quarter, rising by 31.2 percent compared to the previous quarter and up 2.3 percent year on year, recording its strongest quarterly output since the dam collapse in 2019 which reduced the company’s production. The higher production reflects the resumption of its Itabira and Timbopeba units in June and the restart of its Fazendao mine in July.
In the first nine months of the year, the company produced 215.8 million mt of iron ore, decreasing by 3.5 percent year on year.
In the first nine months of this year, Vale’s pellet production totaled 22.56 million mt, decreasing by 29.5 percent compared to the corresponding period of the previous year.
Meanwhile, in the given period, Vale’s metallurgical coal production fell by 24 percent year on year to 2.43 million mt.
Vale said its iron ore sales volumes in the first nine months of this year fell by 10.1 percent year on year to 172 million mt, while its pellet sales in the same period totaled 22.72 million mt, down by 29.5 percent on year-on-year basis.
The company had stated that it plans to add an annual six million mt of iron ore capacity by the fourth quarter this year, as SteelOrbis previously reported.