In December, the Brazilian exports of iron ore, pellets excluded, increased by 48 percent to 31.67 million mt, according to Brazil's ministry of development, industry and foreign trade, MDIC. The exports of pellets in December went up by 26 percent to 5.72 million mt.
The main iron ore export destinations in December were Asia (up 61 percent to 27.32 million mt, 20.52 million mt of which to China, up 56 percent), Europe (down 18 percent to 2.92 million mt) and the Middle East (up 95 percent to 1.09 million mt), while for pellet exports the main destinations were Asia (up 107 percent to 2.61 million mt), Europe (up 34 to 1.64 million mt), the Middle East (down 56 percent to 473,000 mt), Africa (up 11 percent to 460,200 mt) and Latin America (up 33 percent to 361,100 mt).
For the whole of 2014, the Brazilian iron ore exports, pellets excluded, went up from 2013 by 4.4 percent to 294.46 million mt, while pellets exports went up by 5.1 percent to 49.92 million mt.
Asian countries imported 231.17 million mt of iron ore in 2014, 174.99 million mt of which to China, followed by Europe (42.80 million mt), the Middle East (13.32 million mt) and Latin America (6.76 million mt).
Regarding pellets, 18.14 million mt went to Asia, 14.6 million mt to Europe, 5.17 million mt to the Middle East, 4.13 million mt to Africa, 3.88 million mt to Latin America and 2.86 million mt to the Caribbean.