Vale's Third-Quarter Net Income Rose to $3.9 Billion on Higher Iron-Ore Prices

SÃO PAULO--Brazilian mining giant Vale SA's profit rose in the third quarter from a year earlier as the price of iron ore jumped.

Vale said Thursday that it had net income of $3.9 billion in the period, up from $2.9 billion in the third quarter of 2020.

Net operating revenue climbed to $12.7 billion from $10.8 billion.

The company reported adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $6.9 billion, compared with $6.1 billion a year earlier.

Vale is the world's biggest iron-ore producer and more than half its sales of the mineral usually go to China, so the state of the Asian country's economy is key to the Brazilian company's sales. China's economic growth slowed in the third quarter from the second quarter, but its gross domestic product still expanded 4.9% in the three months through September from a year earlier.

The reference price for iron ore increased 27% from a year earlier to $163, from $118 in the third quarter of last year, Vale said.

Vale said last week that iron-ore output rose 0.8% in the third quarter from the same period of 2020 and that sales rose 3.2% to 67.8 million tons.

Earlier this evening the company announced a new buyback plan of up to 200 million common shares, equal to 4.1% of the total number of outstanding shares.