Confirmación de estimados Vale

IR de Vale ha contestado algunas inquietudes que tenía sobre el segmento metales base, lo bueno es que confirman los supuestos usados para elaborar los estimados. 
Cobre viene bien...
Veremos.


Dear Javier,
First of all, my apologies for the delay in answering your question. We are dealing with the preparations for the next quarterly Earnings Release (to be disclosed by the end of the month) and, unfortunately, I was ill for over a week. I’m finally back in the office and ready to address your enquiries.
In regards to the copper price, the discount to the LME price is based on a series of factors, which – mainly – include provisional pricing effects and discount for treatment charges and refining charges (TC/RCs, a standard in the industry). In regards to the MAMA system, which creates a certain “lag” of up to three months between the provisional and final pricing, chances are we may have either a less negative discount or even a positive effect due to recent price movements.  Nonetheless, there is no way the overall price of copper could have a premium over the LME quotes because the product we mainly sell is copper concentrate – which needs to be further processed by custom (third-party) smelters and refineries in order to become copper cathode (refined copper).
Please note that  most of our competitors in the copper market either sell copper cathodes (they have built-in integrated structure to internally process their copper concentrates) or they sell a mix of copper concentrates and copper cathodes. All in all, they get a realized price closer to the LME benchmark price as the premia they receive for the cathodes partially or completely offset the discount of TC/RCs for their copper concentrates. Vale, on the other hand, is mainly a copper concentrate seller. Finally, I should add that there is a surplus of copper smelting and refining capacity in the world – specially in China – and the margins that smelters and refineries capture are considerably lower than the margins that miners capture in such an “oversupplied” smelting/refining capacity market conditions.
Should you need anything else, please don’t hesitate contacting us!
Saludos cordiales,
Bruno Siqueira

Investor Relations