Vale, the Brazilian miner, said it maintained a "positive" long-term outlook for iron ore and nickel prices, based on better-than-expected quarterly earnings.
"We remain positive on the outlook for iron ore given the recovery in the global economy," Vale said in late November after iron ore prices plunged on oversupply concerns and weak steel demand. They have since recouped some of their losses.
The company, once the world's largest producer of raw materials for steel, said its fourth-quarter net income nearly doubled to $5.4bn. The company said the increase was mainly due to the impact of the reclassification of accumulated foreign exchange gains.
The financial gains were partially offset by higher costs related to the Brumadinho dam disaster, such as an additional $1.7 billion allocated to upstream DAMS.
Vale's earnings were hurt by a fall in iron ore prices last year, but nickel has been rising for the past few years and the miner is betting that demand for the metal used in electric cars will continue to grow.
This growth will benefit high-nickel battery chemistry because of its higher energy density, a dynamic on which the North American supply chain is particularly dependent.
