Companhia Vale do Rio Doce announced that it has taken further steps to adjust its nickel production to the evolution of global demand. In light of a global recessionary environment, Vale retains the option of managing production and project execution according to its assessment of market conditions.

The release said that “Consistent with this guideline, we decided to slowdown the conclusion of the Onça Puma nickel project, state of Pará, Brazil, previously scheduled to come on stream in January 2010, with a nominal capacity of 58,000 tonnes of nickel in ferronickel. Given that an environmental permit is still pending, the start up of Onça Puma will be postponed by at least one year.”

It added that “Vale is shutting down for a period of eight weeks from June 1 to July 27 its nickel mining and processing facilities at Sudbury, province of Ontario, Canada. The shutdown will follow a previously planned normal maintenance period at the Sudbury plants during May.”

It also said that “In addition, our processing facilities of precious metals, a by-product of nickel mining in Sudbury, at Port Colborne, Ontario, will also be shutdown from June 1 to July 27 2009.”

Sudbury is one of the largest nickel producing sites in the world and last year its mines provided the feed for the production of 85,300 metric tons of finished nickel, 31% of Vale’s output.