The output of the veil iron ore falls in the first quarter damaged by the Brazilian rain

RIO DE JANEIRO/SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazil’s mine veil produced 67.7 million tonnes of iron ore in the first quarter of 2025, down 4.5% year-on-year, the company said in its sales and output report on Tuesday.

Vale, one of the world’s largest iron ore producers, said heavy rain had an impact on the production of Brazil’s northern mining complex.

Vale said it expects a weaker first quarter output, reaffirming its prospects to produce between 325 and 335 million tonnes of iron ore in 2025.

Iron ore sales rose 3.6% year-on-year to 66.1 million tonnes, according to the report, Vale said it was attributing an increase in supply from inventory, but it prioritized intermediate products considering market conditions.

Vale’s average realised price of iron ore was $90.80 per tonne for the quarter ended in March, down about 10% year-on-year, down 2.4% from the last quarter of 2024.

In a note to clients, City analysts said iron ore production and sales were largely in line with expectations, but copper and nickel beat the estimate.

“We estimate a very small downgrade in our EBITDA estimate,” analysts Alexander Hacking and Stefan Weskott write, predicting stocks will line up following the results.

Vale will release its first quarter revenue on April 24th.

Vale’s copper production rose 11% year-on-year to around 90,900 tonnes, citing strong performance in Canada’s Voisey’s Bay Mine and Brazil’s Sossego operations. Copper sales increased 6.6% to about 81,900 tons.

Nickel output increased by about 11% year-on-year to around 43,900 tons, mainly due to high power output at Onca Puma in Brazil and improved performance on Canadian assets. It sold 38,900 tonnes of nickel in the quarter, up 17.5% from a year ago.

(Reporting by Andre Romani of Saint Paul and Marta Nogir of Rio de Janeiro, edited by Natalie Sinowski and Sonali Paul)