With increased prices in the Chinese spot market and stable ocean freight rates, iron ore prices in Brazil saw a $1/mt increase on a weekly basis, returning to levels of mid-September.
Sinter feed fines of 65 percent iron contents are now traded for export from Brazil at $64/mt, the equivalent lumps at $75/mt and blast furnace grade pellets at $110/mt, FOB conditions.
In the Brazilian domestic market, the prices are now $58/mt for sinter feed fines, $69/mt for lumps and $104/mt for blast furnace grade pellets, ex-works, no taxes included.
Environmental concerns, chiefly in China, are having a positive impact on the price of the high-grade Brazilian ore, which requires less energy in the operation of blast furnaces, reducing the emission of gases.
As a result, the price of the high-grade ore (65 percent iron contents) has detached from the 62 percent iron contents ore: each iron unit of the high-grade ore is now valued 28 percent higher when compared with the low-grade ore, against a historical equivalence between the two grades.
In November, Brazil exported 31,610 million mt of iron ore (pellets excluded), 3.9 percent less than in October.
Pellet exports in November increased by 7.1 percent to 2.541 million mt.