This post was originally published on this site.Vale (NYSE: VALE) chief executive officer Gustavo Pimenta said on Friday that surging energy and freight costs linked to the Middle East conflict have made about 10% of global iron ore supply unprofitable, raising the prospect of a price recovery as high-cost producers cut output. The Brazilian mining giant estimates that roughly 160 million tonnes of annual supply is operating at a loss, with about 15 million tonnes already taken offline because of rising costs, Pimenta said Friday. “Prices should be today a little higher,” Pimenta said in a Bloomberg TV interview. “Not...

This post was originally published on this site.The US government-backed Project Vault is preparing to issue up to $1 billion in loans to American manufacturers seeking critical minerals, advancing Washington’s efforts to shield domestic industry from supply disruptions. VaultCo, the entity managing the stockpiling initiative, is in discussions with more than 70 companies across the critical minerals supply chain, Bloomberg reported. The first round of financing is expected to cover more than a dozen original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), with another group to follow. “What’s likely to happen is we’ll announce several hundred million dollars, maybe a billion dollars, of loans...