The Brazilian mining sector should be the first to recover post-Covid-19, Flávio Penido, president at the Brazilian Mining Institute (Ibram) said this week.
Penido said the sector will recover quickly, adding that it has a strong iron ore installed capacity and sees a growing demand from China.
“China has slow steel and Brazilian high Fe content iron ore inventories,” he said.
Penido said the sector should also resume activities at mines that are now halted due to Covid-19, forecasting that Brazil could produce between 450 million mt of iron ore in “the next few years,” with Vale accounting for most of it.
Other key iron ore producers include CSN Mineração, which is owned by steelmaker Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (CSN), MUSA, the iron ore business of flats producer Usiminas, and Anglo American.