Brazilian iron ore exports up 2.1 percent in Q1

According to the statistics provided by Brazil's National Union of the Industry of Extraction of Iron and Base Metals (Sinferbase), in March this year Brazil's iron ore exports amounted to 22.4 million metric tons, falling by 25.7 percent year on year and up 15.3 percent compared to February.
 
In the first quarter of 2013, Brazilian iron ore exports rose by 2.1 percent year on year, increasing to 61.3 million metric tons. Vale's share in Brazil's total iron ore exports in the January-March period of this year reached 88.5 percent, amounting to 54.3 million metric tons, down 0.5 percent compared to the corresponding period of 2012. As for other miners, Samarco exported 5 million mt of iron ore in the first quarter, rising by 38.4 percent, while Anglo American and MMX reported respectively 1.1 million mt and 973,000 mt of iron ore exports in the period in question.
 
Meanwhile, in the first quarter this year Brazilian iron ore pellet exports amounted to 10.9 million metric tons, falling nine percent year on year, while its iron ore sales to the domestic market fell to 6.15 million mt, down 19.15 percent compared to the same period last year.