Top iron ore exporter sees price dipping below $50 a tonne by 2019

Despite adverse weather conditions and natural disasters, Vale reported pellet output reached a record 12.5 Mt. for the first quarter of the year, up 19.3% from 10.5 Mt reported during the same period of last year. Iron ore production in the first quarter reached 71.5 Mt., a 3.7% increase over the same quarter of 2010. "For 2011 we continue to pursue the goal of 322Mt including the 11 Mt attributable production from Samarco," the company said.

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLF) (Paris: CLF) today announced it has been added to the Fortune 500 list 2011, Fortune Magazine's annual ranking of America's largest companies by revenue. Cliffs is ranked at No. 477, with annual revenues of $4.7 billion for 2010. "We are pleased to attain this ranking in the prestigious Fortune 500," said Joseph A. Carrabba, Cliffs' chairman, president and chief executive officer. "We consider it another significant milestone in our growth."

A planned dividend payment by steelmaker Siderar SID.BA was blocked by an Argentine judge on Thursday in the latest twist in a row linked to the government's efforts to tighten control over leading companies. The steel company had planned to pay a 2010 dividend of $359.5 million on Friday despite a ruling last month by the country's stock market regulator that effectively annulled the payment by declaring a shareholders meeting void.

India-focused miner Vedanta Resources (VED.L) posted a 29 percent jump in full-year earnings per share, on the back of strong metal prices and a background of robust demand for commodities. Vedanta, with operations in India, Australia and Zambia, said on Thursday basic EPS came in at 283 cents.

Rio Tinto , the world's third-largest miner, expects global markets to remain fragile in the near term and sees itself in a strong position to weather any turbulence, its chairman said on Thursday. The company said that it expected little impact on demand for commodities following the earthquake and tsunami disasters in Japan, and said in the long run demand may increase as Japan moved to rebuild.

CSN, Brazil's largest diversified steel group, said on Tuesday that net income jumped 38 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier thanks to robust sales of iron ore and lower sales costs. Sao Paulo-based CSN (CSNA3.SA)(SID.N) earned 616 million reais ($390 million) in the period, up from 447 million reais a year earlier, according to a securities filing. But this fell short of the 697 million reais profit estimate by five analysts in a Reuters poll.

After lengthy deliberations involving several software vendors, Fortescue Metals Group, Australia's third largest iron ore producer after BHPBilliton and Rio Tinto, has picked MineSight for its mine planning software needs. "We decided to use MineSight because we found it to have a comprehensive suite of mine planning capabilities most suited to our operations and a demonstrated track record of quality improvements," said Andrew O'Dowd, FMG's Manager of Operations Planning.

In India's biggest foreign investment deal since 1991, the Indian government has on Monday finally given South Korea's Posco the green light to build a giant $12 billion steel plant in the country. Posco has said it expects to renew `shortly' its pact with the Orissa government for building the $12 billion steel plant, even as the firm has assured that no exports of iron ore would be conducted from the site.

BHP Billiton today announced that the partners of Samarco had approved the US$3.5 billion (BHP Billiton share1 US$1.75 billion) Fourth Pellet Plant Project at Samarco (Brazil). The expansion will increase Samarco iron ore pellet production capacity by 8.3 million tonnes to 30.5 million tonnes per annum (100% basis). First pellet production is expected in the first half of calendar year 2014. BHP Billiton President Iron Ore, Ian Ashby, said “Samarco is a low cost supplier of high quality iron ore pellets and over the last several years has been very successful in growing its resource base. This investment builds on its resource and operational strengths and will further improve Samarco’s competitiveness and market position.”