With a strong reduction of the iron ore price in the Chinese spot market, reflecting additional emissions restrictions in Tangshan, iron ore prices in Brazil declined in average by $11/mt from last week.
Sinter feed fines of 65 percent iron contents are now traded for export at $189/mt, while premium for lumps and pellets were stable, resulting in equivalent lumps at quoted at $217/mt and blast furnace grade pellets at $238/mt, all CFR China quotations.
In the Brazilian domestic market, such prices are respectively $163/mt, $192/mt and $212/mt, ex-works, no taxes included, reflecting also a small increase in ocean freight rates, which has negatively affected FOB quotations.
Regardless of the decline, iron ore prices in the seaborne market remain at very high levels when compared to historical quotations, a fact that sources attribute chiefly to risks of undersupply by Vale and by Australian miners.
In February, Brazil exported 23.00 million mt of iron ore (pellets excluded) and 1.05 million mt of pellets, against respectively 27.99 million mt and 1.00 million mt in January. Asia was the main destination of the ore (18.08 million mt, of which 15.30 million mt to China), followed by Europe (2.36 million mt) and the Middle East (1.61 million mt).
The main destinations of the pellets were Argentina (232,700 mt), South Korea (209,000 mt), the Philippines (178,000 mt) and Oman (173,300 mt), while smaller volumes were shipped to Trinidad and Tobago, Italy and Algeria.