Weekly Brazilian iron ore shipments at lows after Vale incident

SHANGHAI, Feb 11 (SMM) – SMM data estimated that iron ore deliveries from Brazilian ports last week fell to the lowest since 2018, following the tailings dam incident at Vale.

In the week ended February 7, about 6.44 million mt of iron ore deliveries are estimated to leave Brazilian ports, down 1.06 million mt from the week ended January 31. Shipments at Guaiba port, the major shipment port of Vale’s Feijão mine, sharply shrank 58% last week after the disaster.

For the same week, iron ore shipments departing Australian ports are expected to increase by 2.79 million mt from the prior week to 15.69 million mt as major ports returned to normal operation.

Seventy-eight vessels carrying 11.4 million mt of iron ore are likely to arrive at major Chinese ports in the week ended February 7, up 2.97 million mt from the previous week.