Brazil grows iron ore exports in 2017

8 January 2018

Brazilian iron ore exports increased for the fifth consecutive year in 2017. Shipments abroad were down in December however, says the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (Mdic) in its monthly report monitored by Kallanish.

During 2017, exports of iron ore totalled 383.4 million tonnes. This is an increase of 2.6% compared to 2016, or 5.91mt more year-on-year. Brazilian exports have been increasing on an annual basis since 2013.

In December alone, iron ore shipments abroad fell by -6.7% y-o-y to 32.77mt, or -2.35mt less than in the same month of 2016.

Exports of iron ore abroad had a value of $19.20 billion in 2017 on a fob basis or 44.5% more y-o-y. In December alone, the export value was almost the same as in November reaching $1.53 billion, a -13.5% decrease y-o-y.

The main destination for Brazilian iron ore production in 2017 was China which took 54% of total Brazilian exports. Japan was the second largest importer of Brazilian iron ore last year, with a share of 7.3%.

Source: KALLANISH