According to Brazil’s Foreign Trade Secretariat, the country’s iron ore exports increased by 16.6 percent in July this year to 34.3 million mt compared to the previous month, reaching the highest level in nine months, i.e., since October 2018.
This increase came after Vale resumed production at its Brucutu mine, the largest in Minas Gerais. Brazil’s iron production and exports were negatively impacted as a result of the dam explosion at Vale, which in turn caused the closure of several iron ore mines.
As SteelOrbis previously reported, Vale expects that the 30 million mt per year of dry processing production will be gradually resumed starting by the end of this year and the remaining 30 million mt per year, which includes wet processing, is estimated to return in about two to three years.