Brazilian multinational mining corporation Vale is studying options to either sell, partially divest or put some of its its nickel mines on care and maintenance due to challenging short-term market conditions.
Reuters quotes the company’s CEO Gustavo Pimenta as saying that the nickel market faces oversupply due to a significant volume of output from Indonesia. Because of that, Vale would need to improve efficiency of its assets and cut costs to have a profitable nickel business within current market prices.
"The question is how to remain profitable in the short term," he said. "We are evaluating if some assets in the portfolio could have a strategic alternative."
Pimenta added that nickel remains attractive in the medium and long-term.
In December last year, Vale made a number of job cuts across its global operations in response to the ongoing decline in nickel prices. In January, it had started a "strategic review" of its nickel assets in Canada, including their potential sale.
Vale is one of the largest nickel producing companies in the world.
Theodor Lisovoy, Managing Editor, Rough&Polished
