In August this year, Brazilian miner Vale's iron ore export volume totaled 31.92 million mt, up 15.6 percent compared to August 2017 and decreasing by 1.8 percent compared to July, according to Brazil's National Union of the Industry of Extraction of Iron and Base Metals (Sinferbase). In the January-August period of the current year, Vale's iron ore exports increased by 4.3 percent year on year to 223.02 million metric tons.
Meanwhile, in August this year Vale's iron ore sales in its domestic market amounted to 1.62 million mt, increasing by 34 percent year on year and down by 6.3 percent month on month. In the first eight months of this year, Vale's iron ore sales in its domestic market totaled 11.77 million mt, rising by 32.3 percent as compared with the same period last year.