According to the statistics provided by Brazil's National Union of the Industry of Extraction of Iron and Base Metals (Sinferbase), in August this year Brazil's iron ore exports amounted to 26.9 million metric tons, falling by 2.7 percent year on year.
In the first eight months of 2013, Brazilian iron ore exports fell by 4.8 percent year on year to 179.8 million metric tons. Vale's share in Brazil's total iron ore exports in the January-August period of this year amounted to 162.2 million metric tons, down 4.4 percent compared to the corresponding period of 2012. As for other miners, Samarco exported 13.86 million mt of iron ore in the first eight months, down 0.7 percent year on year, while MMX and Anglo American reported respectively 2.73 million mt and 1.06 million mt of iron ore exports in the period in question.
Meanwhile, in the first eight months this year Brazilian iron ore pellet exports amounted to 30.25 million metric tons, falling 11.1 percent year on year, while iron ore sales to the domestic market fell to 16.97 million mt, down 12.2 percent compared to the same period last year.