TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Brazil-based iron-ore giant Vale on Wednesday said that net income attributable to shareholders for the first quarter fell 19% to $2.52-billion, or $0.49 a share, compared with $3.1-billion, or $0.60 a share a year earlier.

The reason for the decline was mainly attributable to a slowdown in the Chinese economy, which buys more than two-thirds of the world’s iron-ore output, being responsible for a significant drop in the iron-ore price this year.

For the three months ended March 31, Vale reported net operating revenues of $9.5-billion, below analyst expectations of $11.23-billion. A group of 12 Wall Street analysts had also expected earnings of $0.54 per share.

Vale, the world’s largest iron-ore producer, and also a source of significant volumes of copper and coal, reported that iron-ore output reached 71.1-million tonnes, the best performance for a first quarter since 2008, and registering record nickel output of 67 500 t and coal production of 1.8-million tonnes.

However, Vale noted that despite the strong production for the period in most of its business segments, iron-ore sales volumes were below potential as the company positioned about three-million tonnes of the total output along the supply chain to support greater operational flexibility and expected stronger sales volumes in the coming quarters.

Vale reported $14.2/t fall in the iron-ore price index (IODEX) and a $9.5/t impact from adjustments on iron-ore provisional prices negatively impacted the first-quarter adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (Ebitda) in comparison with the previous quarter. Ebitda fell 22% to $4.06-billion.

However, despite the sharp decrease in the IODEX, pellet premiums held up firmly, contributing to support realised pellet prices at $ 147.31/t, showing a decrease of only $2.86/t from the fourth quarter.

Vale’s capital expenditures amounted to $2.59-billion in the quarter. It also reduced its net debt by $1.3-billion to $23.16-billion.

The miner’s NYSE-listed stock on Wednesday traded 1.91% lower at $13.10 apiece.