Vale S.A. (VALE) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

For the period ending March 31, 2023

April 27, 2023 10:00 a.m. ET

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Vale's Conference Call to discuss First Quarter 2023 Results. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later we will conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will be given at that time. This call is being simultaneously translated to Portuguese. . As a reminder, this conference is being recorded, and the recording will be available on the company's website at vale.com at the Investors link.

This conference call is accompanied by a slide presentation also available at Investors link at the company's website and is transmitted via Internet as well. The broadcasting via Internet, both the audio and the slide change has a few seconds delay in relation to the audio transmitted via phone.

Before proceeding, let me mention that forward-looking statements are being made under the Safe Harbor of Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1996. Actual performance could differ materially from that anticipated in any forward-looking statements comments as a result of macroeconomic conditions, market risks, and other factors.

With us today are Mr. Eduardo De Salles Bartolomeo, Chief Executive Officer; Mr. Gustavo Pimenta, Executive Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations; Mr. Marcello Spinelli, Executive Vice president of Iron Solutions; Mr. Carlos Medeiros, Executive Vice President of Operations; Ms. Deshnee Naidoo, Executive Vice President of Energy Transition Materials.

First, Mr. Eduardo Bartolomeo will proceed with the presentation on Vale's first quarter 2023 performance. And after that, he will be available for questions and answers.

It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Mr. Eduardo Bartolomeo. Sir, you may now begin.

Eduardo Bartolomeo - CEO

Thank you very much, good morning, everyone. I hope you are all doing well.

We started 2023 with great confidence in delivering our goals for the year. In Iron Solutions, iron ore production was solid, especially at S11D, thanks to a better performance of our truckless system and the installation of new crushers in 2022. In addition, our pellet production increased by 20% year-on-year, with higher feed availability and improving asset reliability in our pelletizing plants.

On iron ore sales, the gap to production was primarily due to weather restrictions in loading at our Northern port and a supply-chain rebalancing after strong sales in the fourth quarter of last year. Since production was not affected, we expect to offset this impact in the second half of the year. In this sense, our average iron content and quality was slightly lower, impacted by the port restrictions and opportunistic sales of low-grade product, which add value to the company.