Vale Loses 5% Following Production Report, Iron Ore Output Falls Short Of Expectations

Shares of Vale SA (ADR) (NYSE: VALE) were trading lower by more than 5 percent on Thursday after the company released its fourth quarter and full year fiscal 2015 production metrics.Vale said that its iron ore output rose 2.9 percent from a year ago to 85.4 metric tons but fell short of the 88.3 million metric tons analysts were expecting, according to Bloomberg. For the full fiscal year, Vale's iron ore output hit a record of 345.9 million metric tons."Overall we are seeing excess supply [in iron ore] for at least a few years," Tim O'Brien at DBRS Ltd. told Bloomberg. "Who knows how long that's actually going to last, but certainly it's not a favorable dynamic now. On the demand side, 2016 will probably be a little bit better but the upside is pretty low."Annual production of pellets also hit a record high of 46.2 million in 2015 while annual production of nickel of 291,000 tonnes was 16,000 tonnes higher than in 2014. The company also saw increases in copper production (423,800 tonnes), cobalt (4,533 tonnes), gold (420,000 ounces), coal (7.3 million tonnes) and fertilizers (3.9 million tonnes) during the full fiscal year 2015.