Brazil increases mineral exports to Mercosur

Brazilian iron ore pellet exports to fellow Mercosur nations jumped 52.3% year-on-year to US$140mn in 1H18, the country's foreign trade department Secex reported.

Brazil shipped 1.54Mt of iron ore pellets to Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, up from 1.17Mt in the same period of 2017.

Meanwhile, exports of aluminum tubes to Mercosur nations shot up 100% to US$62.9mn, according to Secex, with shipments rising to 8,884t from 4,514t in the first half of 2017.

Unwrought aluminum exports to the three nations were up 33.4% year-on-year to US$83.3mn, despite volumes dipping to 191,294t from 195,251t.

Iron ore exports to the trade bloc increased 46.9% to US$72.6mn, with volumes rising to 1.78Mt from 1.72Mt.

Brazil's total exports to Mercosur in H1 reached US$11.5bn, up 6.7% from the US$10.8bn seen in the same six months of last year.