Vale has profit of BRL 95.9 billion in 2022 – 02/16/2023 – Market

Vale announced this Thursday (16) a profit of BRL 95.9 billion in 2022. The amount is 21% lower than that recorded in 2021, when the company had the best profit ever disclosed by a Brazilian public company, of BRL 121.2 billion.

It was the third largest profit ever recorded by a Brazilian company – the second is Petrobras, also in 2021, of R$ 106.6 billion. According to Vale, the reduction was caused by a decline in the price of iron ore, its main product.

For the result of 2022, Vale announced the distribution of another R$ 9.4 billion in dividends, which are added to the R$ 16.2 billion already announced during the year, as remuneration for the profit of the first quarters.

“The year 2022 was marked by issues with global impacts, such as the war in Ukraine and the challenging economic situation in the United States, in addition to the consequences of Covid-19 in China”, wrote the president of Vale, Eduardo Bartolomeo.

“Despite the challenging and volatile scenario, we built a solid result and returned value to our stakeholders [públicos de interesse]”, continued.

The mining company closed 2022 with revenue of BRL 226.5 billion, down 23% compared to 2021. Ebitda, an indicator that measures cash generation, fell 39%, to BRL 102.1 billion.

The company’s iron ore production fell 2% year-on-year to 307.8 million tons, and the average selling price of iron ore fines was 23.5% cheaper at US$108.1 per ton . In 2021, the year of record profit, the company sold the product for an average price of US$ 141.4 per ton.

In the fourth quarter of 2022, Vale had a profit of BRL 29.9 billion, down 34% compared to the same period of the previous year.

The mining company ended the year with an expanded net debt of US$ 14.1 billion, an increase of 56%, but within the US$ 10 billion to US$ 20 billion target.

“The increase was mainly due to lower operating cash generation, increased payments of repair commitments and maintenance of the shareholder remuneration commitment, while seeking a more efficient leverage structure for the company”, he said.

The company also carried out a share buyback program, which already represented the acquisition of 213 million shares, or 43% of the expected total, for US$ 3.4 billion. In all, the three buyback programs accumulated a total of 683 million shares bought back.

In the report released this Thursday, Vale says that in 2022 it advanced with the execution of the repair agreement for the damages of the Brumadinho tragedy, implementing 58% of its commitments. It also celebrated agreements that reach 13.6 thousand people and R$ 3.2 billion.

“Since 2019, BRL 37.6 billion have been spent on repairs, with another BRL 7.9 billion expected in 2023,” the company said.