Brazil's Vale, one of the world's top three mining companies, said on Thursday its third-quarter net profit rose sharply as gross revenues and iron ore sales hit records but nonferrous metal sales slumped.
Net profit rose to $4.8 billion, up 64 percent from the same period last year but down 3.8 percent from the previous quarter, Vale said in a statement.
Vale, the world's biggest iron ore producer, said earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) -- a key measure of cash flow -- rose to $6.4 billion from $4 billion, according to U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP).
The average target of five analysts polled by Reuters was for net profit to remain unchanged in local currency from a year ago.
Vale's shares lost 3.32 percent in local trading on Thursday before the results were released, while the broader market fell 3.57 percent.
Gross revenues hit a record of $12.1 billion, up 11.2 percent from the previous quarter and up 49.2 percent a year earlier.
Iron ore and pellet shipments reached an all-time high of 85.9 million metric tons in the third quarter.
But shipments of nonferrous minerals, such as nickel and copper, fell 7.2 percent from a year earlier and 9.3 percent from the previous quarter to $3.25 billion.
This was due primarily to the fall in nickel prices, which fell to $19,691 per metric ton in the third quarter from $32,312 per metric ton a year earlier.
Nonferrous minerals now make up 26.8 percent of overall gross revenues, down from 32.8 percent in the previous quarter and 43 percent a year earlier.
"While we continue to have a strong belief in the soundness of the long-term fundamentals of minerals and metals markets, nonetheless we do recognize the risks embodied in the current global economic environment," Vale said in the statement.
The company sees a slowdown in China bottoming out in early 2009 and the economy rebounding in the first half of 2009 driven by higher infrastructure spending and a recovery of real estate investment.
China is Vale's main market for iron ore and pellets.
Vale denied rumors this week that it was preparing a renewed proposal to buy a stake in Swiss rival Xstrata
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