MINING: Vale closes credit line with Korean bank

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SÃO PAULO, 11/19/08 - The Brazilian miner Vale signed a contract today with the Korean Kexin Bank to obtain a credit line worth US$1 billion. The funds will be used to increase raw materials production such as iron ore, copper and nickel to be exported to South Korea.

Vale's president, Roger Agnelli, commented about the effects of the financial crisis, which led the company to reduce its iron ore production by 30 million tonnes. 'We had to hold back production. The problem is not prices, but the demand,' he explained.

Questioned about the need to cut jobs in the miner due to the global crisis, the executive said he believes in a slow recovery as of February or March 2009. 'Such measure should not be needed until then,' he declared.

(newsroom/cferreira - InvestNews)