Brazilian miner Vale has been shipping a larger proportion of iron ore products to China at the expense of Europe and other Asian customers at a time of weak volumes, according to trade data through to the end of January, S&P Global’s Panjiva said Thursday.
Vale shipped more than two thirds of its iron ore from Brazil to China in the November 2019 to January 2020 period, Panjiva, a unit of S&P Global Market Intelligence, said in a report.
“From a customer perspective Vale was already heavily skewed in favor of Chinese buyers which accounted for 70.1% of the total in the three months to January 31, up from 60.7% a year earlier,” the report said.
Importers in the rest of Asia took 15.8% of supplies, down from 23.6% of the total a year earlier, it added.
Demand in Europe for Vale’s iron ore has fallen, especially for its blast furnace grade pellets, according to procurement executives at steel producers.
Growing interest in Canadian high grade sinter feed concentrates and other high grade iron ores has limited European demand for Vale’s IOCJ 65% Fe fines product, which is loaded out of northeast Brazil’s Ponta da Madeira terminal in Sao Luis.
Vale’s overall iron ore shipment volumes showed a fall in January back toward the lows of April 2019, which was the aftermath of Vale’s dam burst and subsequent mine idlings in southern Brazil for safety checks.
Heavy rain in Brazil hit shipments in the first quarter, with overall volumes in January at just over 16 million mt, half of the total exported a year earlier.
“When combined with a slide of 33.3% in January compared to the fourth quarter for other Brazilian exporters including CSN and Anglo American…total Brazilian exports reached their lowest for a single month in at least five years,” Panjiva said.
Source:Platts
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