* Previous guidance $15 billion by mid-2017
* Focus on margins rather than volume
LONDON, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Vale VALE5.SA Chief Executive Officer Murilo Ferreira said on Wednesday the firm was seeking to cut its debt to between $15 billion and $17 billion by the end of 2017, a slight revision of previous guidance.
Along with the rest of the mining industry, Vale was hard hit by a collapse in commodity prices last year, but for Vale the impact was made worse by the collapse of a dam in Brazil, part of the Samarco venture it jointly operates with BHP Billiton BHP.AX BLT.L . its Q3 results statement in October, Vale reported a profit and its net debt had fallen by $1.5 billion from the second quarter to $25.97 billion and Vale's guidance pointed to a net debt cut to $15 billion by mid-2017, primarily through asset sales. at a Bloomberg conference on Wednesday, the CEO also said he was shifting the focus to increasing profit margins rather than higher production.
This reflects a trend in an industry that can no longer rely on simply producing more from increasingly depleted and low quality assets to boost shareholder value.