Foreign media reported on February 22 that Brazilian mining giant Vale announced a net loss of $3.8 billion in the fourth quarter, a significant increase year-on-year, mainly due to impairment of its Canadian nickel assets. The company stated that a downward revision of long-term nickel price assumptions based on market forecasts triggered a $3.5 billion impairment loss on its base metals nickel assets. In addition, the write-off of deferred tax assets by its subsidiaries impacted the company by $2.8 billion, and Samarco, a joint venture with BHP Billiton, increased its reserves by $449 million due to a UK class-action lawsuit.
Evaluation and Analysis
Brazilian mining giant Vale has written off $3.5 billion in nickel assets due to market expectations lowering long-term nickel price assumptions, reflecting extreme pessimism in the industry regarding the nickel price outlook. This significant event will reinforce expectations of a sell-off in the spot market, increase concerns about oversupply, and could lead to a faster decline in spot prices.
As an integrated internet platform providing benchmark prices, on February 23, the benchmark price of nickel on SunSirs was 140,100.00 RMB/ton, a decrease of 4.05% compared with the beginning of the month (146,016.67 RMB/ton).
Application of SunSirs Benchmark Pricing：
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