In May this year, Brazilian miner Vale's iron ore export volume totaled 26.95 million mt, down 2.9 percent compared to May 2016 and rising by 13.5 percent compared to April, according to Brazil's National Union of the Industry of Extraction of Iron and Base Metals (Sinferbase). In the January-May period of the current year, Vale's iron ore exports increased by 2.7 percent year on year to 126.54 million metric tons.
Meanwhile, in May this year Vale's iron ore sales in its domestic market amounted to 949,000 mt, decreasing by 10.1 percent year on year and down by 12.3 percent month on month. In the first five months of this year, Vale's iron ore sales in its domestic market totaled 5.4 million mt, falling by 5.9 percent as compared with the same period last year.