Iron ore exports, pellets excluded, fetched 21.41 million mt in November, 21 percent less than the 27.19 million mt of October, at the same average FOB price, $52/mt, according to the country’s ministry of development, industry and foreign trade, MDIC.
Exports of pellets were reduced from 4.59 million mt to 4.54 million metric tons, with average price at the same $101/mt of October.
A source from a major steel producer told SteelOrbis that in the domestic market, the base price for negotiations by Vale is currently of $70/mt for sinter feed fines, $80/mt for lumps and $110/mt for pellets, CFR full taxes conditions, adding that there is a wide variation from client to client, depending on contract conditions.
The lower volume of iron ore exported reflects chiefly exports to Asia reduced by 11 percent to 16.99 million metric tons, of which 13.12 million metric tons to China, a 10 percent reduction, and exports to Europe reduced by 34 percent to 3.55 million metric tons.
Exports of iron ore to the Middle East went down by 70 percent to 558,000 mt and exports to South America went down by 21 percent to 484,600 mt.
For pellets, the main destinations were Asia (down 40 percent to 1.26 million mt), Europe (up 27 percent to 1.22 million mt), the Middle East (up 165 percent to 1.07 million mt), Argentina (down 32 percent to 272,100 mt) and Trinidad & Tobago (up 104 percent to 227,800 mt).
On yearly basis, the iron ore exports of November went down by 20 percent in volume and by 42 percent in price, while exports of pellets went up by 12 percent in volume and down by 28 percent in price.
An industry source commented to SteelOrbis that the pellets market has more resilience than the iron ore market, as the integrated steel producers always need a minimum of steelmaking grade pellets to operate their blast furnaces, while the direct reduction units rely only on the DRI grade pellets to run their plants.