In May this year, Brazilian miner Vale's iron ore export volume totaled 27.75 million mt, up 12.3 percent compared to May 2015 and rising by 14.8 percent compared to April, according to Brazil's National Union of the Industry of Extraction of Iron and Base Metals (Sinferbase). In the first five months of the current year, Vale's iron ore exports increased by 42.8 percent year on year to 123.2 million metric tons.
Meanwhile, in May this year Vale's iron ore sales in its domestic market amounted to 1.05 million mt, decreasing by 3.1 percent year on year and down by 11.2 percent month on month. In the January-May period of this year, Vale's iron ore sales in its domestic market totaled 5.73 million mt, rising by 40.7 percent as compared with the same period last year.