Bloomberg cited Mr Jose Carlos Martins executive director for Ferrous and Strategy as saying that Vale SA, the world’s largest iron ore producer, aims to increase production to record levels in an attempt to win back market share while higher cost competitors are hurt by falling prices.

Mr Martins said that “The Rio de Janeiro based company can produce as much as 350 million tonnes next year, 40 million tonnes more than this year Vale is sticking with an official target of 326 million tonnes given in December. 40 million is something we believe is possible. There is space for Vale to grow by recovering market share and by kind of squeezing high cost producers.”

Mr Martins said that The Brazilian miner will weather lower iron ore prices better than startups that began when prices were higher. Some mines aren’t profitable when prices fall below current levels because of lower ore quality and scale. Prices have fallen as much as 31% since February.

He said that “Many of the juniors will fail. I don’t think they can live with the price below USD 110 declining to name firms that may face financing shortages. Many junior companies will be absorbed by big guys. Vale isn’t planning any more acquisitions as it continues to work on consolidating recent purchases. We have to digest what we ate.”

Vale is scheduled to start five iron ore projects by the end of 2014 with an estimated combined capacity of 87 million tonnes at a cost of USD 8 billion. The Carajas Additional 40 Mtpy project in Brazil’s northern state of Para and the Conceicao Itabiritos venture in Minas Gerais are planned for the H2 of 2013 and the Vargem Grande Itabiritos, Conceicao Itabiritos II and the Serra Leste projects are set to start next year.

The company is also advancing with its Serra Sul S11D project in Carajas, the world’s largest iron ore complex which is the industry’s most expensive venture with a cost of almost USD 20 billion for the mine and logistics. The project is expected to start operating in the second part of 2016. While the company is experiencing delays at expansions of its Carajas and Minas Gerais mines because of Brazil’s tight labor market, the holdups are unlikely to change its schedule.