Brazilian mining giant Vale said Thursday it registered a net profit of 2.25 billion reais (1.35 billion U.S. dollars) in the first quarter of 2008, down 55.8 percent year on year.
Vale said in a statement that the company's gross revenue was 14.57 billion reais (8.72 billion dollars) in that period, down 12.5 percent year on year.
The company attributed the negative results to currency volatility and to the pressures on costs generated by price hikes for production inputs.
However, Vale registered record iron ore sales, which stood at 74.6 million tons in the first quarter, up 14.2 percent from the same period of last year. Aluminum sales also reached 136,000 tons in the period, another record for the mining giant.
Vale added that 16.7 percent of its sales revenue came from China, followed by Brazil (16.2 percent), Japan (10.5 percent), the United States (10.5 percent), Germany (6.5 percent) and Canada(five percent).
The mining giant also highlighted the delivery of three new projects, including an iron ore mine in the state of Minas Gerais in southeastern Brazil, the third Samarco pelletizing plant in theBrazilian state of Espirito Santo and a nickel processing plant in Dalian, a coastal city in Northeast China's Liaoning province.
Vale is the world's largest producer of iron ore and the second-largest producer of nickel.
Source: Xinhua
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