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BRASILIA (Scrap Monster): Brazil-based mining giant Vale has announced its production results for the third quarter and the first nine months of 2012.

In the third quarter, Vale produced almost 83.9 million mt of iron ore, declined 4.5% year-on-year, Iron ore output from the Carajas site amounted to 27.63 million mt in the given quarter, down 10.5% year-on-year. The miner's pellet production increased by 1.3% year-on-year to 14.9 million mt.

In the first nine months, Vale's iron ore output amounted to 234.46 million mt, down 2.2% year-on-year. In the given period, the pellet output of the company increased by 3.6% year-on-year to 42.9 million mt.

In the third quarter, Vale's metallurgical coal output increased to 1.2 million mt from 586,000 mt in the same quarter of 2011, due to the ramp-up at the Moatize coal mine in Mozambique, while it amounted to 3.61 million mt in the first nine months, compared to 1.6 million mt in January-September of 2011.

The company registered a 15.7% decrease in its nickel output for the third quarter, while in the January-September period its nickel output remained flat year-on-year.

Meanwhile, the slowdown in global GDP growth and in particular in global industrial production has weakened demand for steel, pushing the industry to replace the use of blast furnace pellets by sinter feed. This change in raw material use led Vale to suspend operations at the Sao Luis (Maranhão state) and Tubarao I and II (Espírito Santo state) pellet plants in Brazil.