With marginal increase of iron ore prices in the Chinese spot market, coupled with stable ocean freight rates, iron ore prices in Brazil have increased on average by $1/mt over the last week.
Sinter feed fines of 65 percent iron contents are now traded for export from Brazil at $64/mt, the equivalent lumps at $85/mt and blast furnace grade pellets at $122/mt, FOB conditions.
In the Brazilian domestic market, for equivalent ores, the prices are $58/mt for sinter feed fines, $79/mt for lumps and $116/mt for blast furnace grade pellets, ex-works, no taxes included.
In July, Brazil exported 32.8 million mt of iron ore (pellets excluded), roughly the same volume of June. Asia was the main destination (26.8 million mt, of which 21.1 million mt to China), followed by Europe (4.3 million mt) and the Middle East (1.3 million mt), while smaller volumes were shipped to Latin American countries.
Pellet exports reached 3.2 million mt in July, a 30 percent increase from June, destined chiefly to the EU (755,000 mt), the US (525,200 mt) and Asia (694,500 mt). Smaller tonnages were shipped to Africa (372,800 mt), the Middle East (369,600 mt), South America (245,800 mt) and Trinidad and Tobago (244,000 mt).