Brazil is keeping close track of events and performance of the Chinese economy, particularly those areas that might have an impact on the exports of the leading and largest South American economy.
Brazilian iron ore exports increased by 18.5% in September compared to the same period last year, to 37.86 million tons, after Vale increased the pace of production. The volume shipped last month is the biggest since December 2015, when Brazil exported a monthly record of 39.5 million tons, according to the Ministry of Industry, Foreign Trade and Services.
Brazilian officials say there is no room for fear when it comes to the country’s capacity to keep up with Chinese demand for iron ore. Iron ore prices hit six-and-a-half year highs last week as the Chinese construction and manufacturing sector experiences levels of activity last seen almost a decade ago.
Iron ore prices look set to be stronger for longer, potentially delivering windfall profits for West Australia’s big miners for the next two years. As the iron ore price hit a five-year high of US$107.50/t this week, analysts have begun scrambling to revise their estimates as they start to digest the impact of supply disruptions out of Brazil and how long the outages could linger.
China iron ore futures rose to a record on Monday, the first session after a week-long national holiday, on concerns that supply from Brazil, the country’s second-largest ore supplier, may decline after a fatal dam accident at a Vale mine.
Brazil’s Bovespa-index futures declined with the equity gauge poised for its biggest monthly drop since May, after iron-ore producer Vale SA posted a record loss in the fourth quarter.
Australia’s Gladiator Resources has announced a Joint Ore Reserves Committee, JORC, Indicated and Inferred Resource of 69.4 million tons at 26.5% iron at its Zapucay Project in the department of Rivera, northern Uruguay.
Bolivian prosecutors with the support from police and military forces on Friday raided the offices of India’s Jindal in La Paz as part of an investigation for an alleged “breach of contract” following the company’s confirmation it was abandoning the huge iron-ore mining project of El Mutún.
The world's number two mining company, Brazil’s Vale Doce said it received an environmental license to build its biggest-ever iron ore mine, an Amazon region project that holds about one trillion dollars of reserves at current prices.
Brazilian exports of iron ore from January through May were down 19% in value from the same period last year, according to a report from Sao Paulo based newspaper Folha on Thursday.