Brazil and Australia Significantly Increase Iron Ore Exports

The export volumes of iron ore from the leading exporting countries made a significant jump during 2016. Brazilian iron ore exports rose nearly 6% year-on-year in the first four months of 2016. Meanwhile, Australia's steelmaking exports increased by nearly 10% during March this year.

Brazil's latest foreign trade data indicate that the country's iron ore exports increased 5.7% year-on-year to 1.43 billion tonnes in January-April this year. Average export prices plummeted nearly 42% year on year to US $ 26.9 per tonne FOB.

China was the largest importer of Brazilian ore in four months. The country imported 61.121 million tonnes from Brazil at an average price of US $ 25.5 per tonne. The second largest export destination was Malaysia with 10.097 million tonnes. Export prices in Malaysia averaged $ 23.3 per tonne. Japan imported 9.6 million tons of iron ore from Brazil during the first four months of this year.

Exports to Japan averaged US $ 29.4 per tonne.
Australia's iron ore exports totaled 37.489 million tonnes in March this year, up 9.7% from the previous year. Average export prices declined nearly 9% year on year to US $ 46.8 per tonne FOB.

Australia's quarterly iron ore exports totaled 1.879 billion tonnes in Q1 2016 at an average price of US $ 41.3 per tonne. China was the main importer of Australian iron ore. Exports to the countries amounted to 1.53 billion tons at an average price of US $ 40.7 per tonne. Japan came in second with 18.184 million tonnes at an average price of US $ 45.2 per tonne. Other destinations for Australian iron ore exports were Korea (11.548 million tonnes) and Taiwan (4.166 million tonnes).