Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Gustavo Pimenta: Caio, Gustavo here. So I’ll get started with the all-in question for iron ore and maybe Deshnee can help us out with the base metals here. So in iron ore, there are a couple of things which will benefit our breakeven over the next couple of years, right? One is the simple fact that we should be resuming capacity, right? So there is a plan as we laid out in Vale Day and we’ll provide more color now in December in terms of ramping up capacity, but also ramping up capacity of higher-quality products, which will help on the premiums and therefore the all-in. Certainly, the ability for us to sell to markets that are closer to our operations helps additionally to that case. So overall, I think we are moving in that direction of being, over time, even more competitive from an all-in standpoint.

So you’re right on your assessment, and that’s the way we also see. So I’ll just hand it back to Deshnee, if you can talk a word about base metals. But before that, maybe Spinelli can complement on the iron ore, if there is anything else you want to add to the all-ins?

Marcello Spinelli: Thank you, Caio. That’s exactly the strategy that we have, right? So it’s based on decarb, segmentation and as we need to decarb, we have the direct reduction route and we go after competitive energy. So Middle East is a target. U.S. is a target and also Brazil. So exactly the consequence of that is reduce our exposure to China. And we — that’s a way to go back in a much better shape to Atlantic, as you mentioned. And we’re going to have the benefit as Pimenta said, of the premiums and the breakeven of EBITDA and also the freight and keep our competitiveness with big vessels, we have capacity to discharge in Oman, the Valemaxes. We also have capacity to discharge in Europe and Holter dam show you’re going to keep the all the advantage that we’ve been developing in China in a closer and stable territory. Now I hand over to Deshnee.

Deshnee Naidoo: Thank you, Caio. Thank you, Gustavo. So Caio, thank you for the question. I’m just going to call out some of the progress that we’ve already seen. We’ve had 3 progressive quarters this year for copper as Eduardo said, quarter 3 versus quarter 1 is already a 22% increase. But turning to South Atlantic. South Atlantic has had a 47% increase in copper production during the first 3 quarters of this year. And September month, and I’m seeing the same trend in October month, we are at the highest levels of copper production across South Atlantic since 2019. And then when I turn to Ontario mines, although we’ve had the issues which are very explainable in Coleman mine, 4 out of the 5 mines in Ontario are above 96% of the budget target.

So I think we can say that the improvement and the ramp-up are being delivered, but perhaps not at the pace that we needed to be. So one of the first milestones that we are — that we’ve delivered is the fact that Salobo III, I think, is absolutely a benchmark delivery on ramp-up. Eduardo said, we’re closer to 80% of the throughput, which is around 10 million tonnes per annum run rate already and to deliver that within 9 months where we’ve had some delays in the second line start-up is very impressive. On Salobo I and II, we’ve previously mentioned on Vale Day, that we’re in the process of doing a recovery program. And that recovery plan was really targeted as catching up on some of the backlog maintenance. Very happy to say that, that work, the majority of it has been completed and the improvements that we’re seeing, Caio, now is that the plant availability, plant 1 and 2, is up to 90%, which is actually up more than 5% increase year-on-year.