With higher prices in the Chinese spot market, coupled with lower ocean freight rates and higher premium for lumps and pellets, iron ore prices in Brazil have increased on a weekly basis.
Sinter feed fines prices of 65 percent iron contents are negotiated at $105/mt, equivalent lumps at $122/mt and equivalent blast furnace grade pellets at $138/mt, all CFR China conditions, dry basis. Such prices compare with $102/mt, $118/mt and $133/mt, respectively, one week ago.
In the Brazilian domestic market, for wet basis, such prices are now respectively $76/mt, $94/mt and $109/mt, ex-works conditions, no taxes included, comparable with $72/mt, $88/mt and $103/mt, respectively, last week.
Recent information from the Brazilian foreign trade authority SEC indicates that during the first two weeks of February, the volume of combined exports of iron ore and pellets from Brazil declined by 20 percent from January, when considering the daily iron ore export rate.
Such information points to a forecasted decline of 40 percent, under the same comparative basis, for the full month of February based on the second-week trend, a possible indication that China’s problems related to the Convid-19 outbreak are having an impact on the Brazilian iron ore exports. Intensive rains in the mining areas during January could have also played a role in the decline, local analysts told SteelOrbis.
