Vale S.A. (VALE) Q3 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

For the period ending September 30, 2022

October 28, 2022 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 Third Quarter 2022 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 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 chains 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, Finance, and Investor Relations. Mr. Marcello Spinelli, Executive Vice president, Iron Ore; and Ms. Deshnee Naidoo, Executive Vice President, Base Metals. First, Mr. Eduardo Bartolomeo will proceed the presentation on Vale's third quarter 2022 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're fine. I'd like to start guiding you through our main accomplishments in the quarter. We have made significant progress with regards to operational stability. In iron ore, our production was close to 90 million tons, an increase of 21% quarter-over-quarter. While the world is facing growing inflationary pressures, we remain focused on cost discipline, our C1 cost decreased $1.5 per ton. In our base metals business, performance improved significantly after extended assets maintenance. In Nickel, production increased 51%. But sales lag production impacting our EBITDA. Deshnee will give you more details on that later.

Moving to our strategic agenda, we are delivering on our commitments to lead the Low Carbon mining. Our solar project, Sol do Cerrado is coming online to further reduce our carbon footprint. We're refining our strategy, positioning Vale as an iron solutions company and the partner of choice of the energy transition and the V megatrend. We continue to strengthen our business to deliver the products essential to a more sustainable future. In this sense, we are making progress in growing our supply of low carbon nickel, and other critical minerals for the energy transition.