BRASÍLIA: The most recent statistics released by Brazil’s Secretary of Foreign Trade (Secex) indicates significant rise in iron ore exports by the country during the month of December 2015. Brazil’s iron ore exports during December last year totaled 39.508 million tons, up 5.7% when compared with the previous year.
The iron ore export price averaged at $32.3 FOB per ton, substantially lower by 39.5% when compared with a year before. The iron ore export prices in Brazil had averaged at $53.3 per ton during December 2014. The value of exports totaled $1,274.875 million, dropping sharply by 36% year-on-year. The total value of Brazilian iron ore exports had amounted to $1,992.824 million during the same month in 2014.
The largest destination of iron ore exports from Brazil was China. The exports to China during December ’15 totaled 21.682 million tons, accounting for nearly 55% of the total exports by Brazil during the month. The value of exports to China during the month totaled $636.088 million. The export prices averaged at $29.30 per tonne during Dec ’15.
The second largest destination of Brazil’s iron ore exports was Japan. The exports to Japan totaled 3.911 million tons. The other key export destinations of Brazilian iron ore during the last month of the previous year were the Philippines (2.476 million tons), Netherlands (2.273 million tons) and South Korea (1.749 million tons).
The non-agglomerated iron ore exports by Brazil totaled 33.218 million tonnes during Dec ’15, higher by 4.9% when matched with the exports of 31.672 million tonnes during December 2014. The export value of non-agglomerated iron ore has dropped sharply by 39.4% from $1,462.420 million to $886.882 million. The average export prices have dropped sharply by 42% from $46.2 per tonne in Dec ’14 to $26.7 per tonne in December last year.
Meantime, Brazil’s agglomerated iron ore exports totaled 6.290 million tonnes, valued at $387.993 million during Dec ’15. The export prices averaged at $61.7 per tonne FOB during the month.
