Vale January Southern Brazil Iron-Ore Output Cut 20%

Vale SA, the world’s largest iron-ore producer, will lose about 20 percent of its January output of iron-ore in southern Brazil because of rains in three of the country’s states.

“We are in Noah’s Ark; the rains have to stop for us to go down” to the mines, Jose Carlos Martins, the company’s head of ferrous and strategy, told reporters today on a conference call. More rains are forecast for next week, Martins said.