The price of Brazilian high-grade iron ore with 65 percent iron content is now $106/mt CFR China, up from $104/mt last week.
Analysts say the increase over the last two weeks is due to resilient short-term demand from China. However, the threat of tariffs from the US has limited the possibility of further increases.
The export price of blast furnace-grade pellets is now $119/mt, compared to $117/mt last week, CFR China. This maintains the same premium relative to sinter feed fines.
The premium for Brazilian high-grade ore containing 65 percent iron relative to Australian ore containing 62 percent iron, based on iron content, increased from 5.2 percent to 5.8 percent. This reflects integrated producers' interest in premium ores’ performance in blast furnaces.
In the Brazilian domestic market, reference prices are $82/mt for ore and $95/mt for pellets, up from $78/mt and $91/mt, respectively, ex-works and excluding taxes. These prices have also been positively affected by lower Brazil-China freight rates because the domestic price in Brazil is based on the FOB quotation using CFR China as the reference.
Over the past two weeks, the average iron ore freight rate from Brazil to China has fallen by $5.5/mt on the Tubarão-Qingdao route.
In June, Brazil exported 34.69 million mt of iron ore and 1.61 million mt of pellets (excluding pellets), compared to 32.68 million mt and 2.40 million mt, respectively, in May.
June’s iron ore exports were destined for Asia (30.07 million mt, 26.07 million of which went to China), the Middle East (1.91 million mt), Europe (1.16 million mt), South America (724,700 mt), Mexico (437,700 mt), and Algeria (383,600 mt).
Pellets were shipped to Africa (469,400 mt), Asia (358,000 mt), Europe (261,600 mt), the US (260,000 mt), Trinidad and Tobago (158,200 mt), and Argentina (96,100 mt).