The new head of Vale has laid out one of the Brazilian company’s most ambitious goals — becoming the world’s biggest metals producer by market capitalisation.
“It has to be the biggest mining company in the world because we are sitting on the biggest mining endowment in the world,” CEO Gustavo Pimenta said recently at a business event in Sao Paulo. “We need to unlock the value of this company.”
Pimenta, who took over as CEO in October, has a tall order to eclipse larger rivals including BHP Group and Rio Tinto Group. Vale’s market capitalization is $43.9-billion, close to a third of BHP’s market value and less than half of Rio Tinto. He said that Vale was ranked second for market value a decade ago. That changed when two deadly mining disasters and a plunge in iron-ore production eroded investor sentiment in the stock.
Pimenta told the business crowd that he aims to improve Vale’s market value through operational stability, safety improvements and further development of its mining assets. He also said Vale’s 2030 target for iron-ore annual output should secure the company’s rank as the world’s biggest producer of the steelmaking ingredient.
“We want to reach 360-million tons, regaining the position we should never have lost as the world’s largest iron ore mining company,” he said. “We are well on the way of regaining this position.”