According to the statistics provided by Brazil's National Union of the Industry of Extraction of Iron and Base Metals (Sinferbase), in April this year Brazil's iron ore exports amounted to 19.18 million metric tons, rising by 1.2 percent year on year and down 14.2 percent compared to March.
In the first four months of 2013, Brazilian iron ore exports rose by 1.9 percent year on year, to 80.57 million metric tons. Vale's share in Brazil's total iron ore exports in the January-April period of this year reached 88.7 percent, amounting to 71.5 million metric tons, up 0.6 percent compared to the corresponding period of 2012. As for other miners, Samarco exported 6.86 million mt of iron ore in the first four months, rising by 20.6 percent, while Anglo American and MMX reported respectively 1.07 million mt and 1.17 million mt of iron ore exports in the period in question.
Meanwhile, in the first four months this year Brazilian iron ore pellet exports amounted to 14.76 million metric tons, falling 9.9 percent year on year, while its iron ore sales to the domestic market fell to 8.32 million mt, down 17.7 percent compared to the same period last year.