In March this year, Brazilian miner Vale's iron ore export volume totaled 26.94 million mt, up 6.6 percent compared to March 2016 and rising by 11.6 percent compared to February, according to Brazil's National Union of the Industry of Extraction of Iron and Base Metals (Sinferbase). In the first quarter of the current year, Vale's iron ore exports increased by 6.4 percent year on year to 75.86 million metric tons.
Meanwhile, in March this year Vale's iron ore sales in its domestic market amounted to 1.24 million mt, increasing by 1.6 percent year on year and up by 17.3 percent month on month. In the January-March period of this year, Vale's iron ore sales in its domestic market totaled 3.37 million mt, falling by 3.5 percent as compared with the same period last year.