⛏️Iron ore price today
Quotation from 10/12/2026
International futures market · converted via PTAX
Iron ore is priced at R$ 453.17 per ton (US$ 90.83 per dry metric ton) at the close of 10/12/2026. Iron ore is the most important commodity on the Brazilian stock exchange: it accounts for the bulk of Vale's earnings, and the price is decided on the other side of the world by Chinese steelmaking.
Iron ore price history
💡 Drag across the chart to measure the variation between two dates.
Series of daily closes since 08/08/2016 (2558 quotations), converted to reais using the Central Bank's selling PTAX rate for each trading day.
Series milestones
Price per quantity
Direct conversions of the quotation from 10/12/2026, to check without a calculator.
| 1 ton | R$ 453.17 |
|---|---|
| 10 tons | R$ 4,531.70 |
| 100 tons | R$ 45,317.00 |
Iron ore price year by year
Minimum, average, and maximum of each year in reais per ton, with the full-year change. The conversion uses the PTAX of each trading session—so the change in reais embeds exchange rate movement, not just the commodity's.
| Year | Minimum | Average | Maximum | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | R$ 196.28 | R$ 522.92 | R$ 584.49 | −22.23% |
| 2025 | R$ 509.19 | R$ 569.65 | R$ 625.24 | −5.63% |
| 2024 | R$ 498.70 | R$ 591.77 | R$ 709.44 | −3.82% |
| 2023 | R$ 507.50 | R$ 594.39 | R$ 689.23 | +4.26% |
| 2022 | R$ 412.15 | R$ 624.53 | R$ 819.33 | −14.36% |
| 2021 | R$ 500.58 | R$ 860.03 | R$ 1,150.87 | −25.82% |
| 2020 | R$ 332.71 | R$ 557.79 | R$ 813.88 | +117.53% |
| 2019 | R$ 272.18 | R$ 366.94 | R$ 475.07 | +34.52% |
| 2018 | R$ 208.04 | R$ 253.05 | R$ 286.58 | +10.97% |
| 2017 | R$ 178.50 | R$ 224.54 | R$ 281.59 | −2.84% |
| 2016 | R$ 176.64 | R$ 211.42 | R$ 270.44 | +34.13% |
What this price means
This is the benchmark for iron ore with 62% iron content, in dollars per dry metric ton, on a CFR China basis—meaning freight to the Chinese port is already included. It is the index used by the global market to price contracts.
Ore turns into steel: along with metallurgical coal, it feeds the blast furnaces that produce building beams, car panels, and rails. Since China produces more than half of the world's steel, that is where the price is formed.
Grade matters a lot. Richer ore (65%) yields more steel per ton and is sold at a premium; poorer ore is sold at a discount. The 62% benchmark is the middle ground that became the market standard.
This is not the price of iron bought at a hardware store—rebar and bar are steel, a manufactured product with processing costs, energy, and margins added on top. Nor is it the price of iron scrap, which follows a different market.
What makes the price of iron ore go up and down
Mill margins and steel production in China drive the price. When Beijing tightens production for environmental targets, or when margins disappear, ore purchasing drops along with it.
Construction is the largest destination for Chinese steel. A real estate crisis, unsold housing inventory, and the pace of new construction translate directly into ore demand—this drove the price over recent years.
Vale, Rio Tinto, BHP, and Fortescue concentrate seaborne shipments. Rain in Pará or cyclones in Australia drop shipments and support prices; new projects coming online do the opposite—and Simandou in Guinea is the project the market is watching.
Since the benchmark is delivered to China, shipping costs factor into the price. And for Vale, what matters is the US dollar: dollar revenue and a good portion of costs in reais.
How to invest in iron ore in Brazil
There is no way for the average investor to buy ore. Exposure in Brazil is nearly synonymous with a stock—and that is why this quotation appears in every Vale analysis:
The direct route: a miner's earnings are essentially the price of ore minus extraction and freight costs. Follow it on the stocks page.
On the other side of the table: for the mill, ore is a cost. Cheap ore with firm steel improves steelmaker margins—the relationship is the inverse of a miner's.
Global baskets that dilute single-company risk, with currency and country risk.
A commodity pays no dividends or interest: the return comes solely from price movement, and it can go years without moving. Therefore, for most investors, it makes more sense to use the quotation as a thermometer — to gauge the momentum of companies and funds that generate cash from it — than to try to guess the direction of the price.
Iron ore news and analysis
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Frequently asked questions about iron ore prices
What is the price of a ton of iron ore today?
Why does the price of iron ore impact the Brazilian stock market so much?
What does "62% Fe ore" mean?
Is this the price of scrap metal or rebar?
Other commodities
Metals and energy, with international quotations converted to reais.
View full commodities dashboard →⚠️ Reference quotation from the international futures market, delayed relative to the trading session and reproduced here for informational purposes only. Conversion to reais uses the Central Bank's selling PTAX. This is not a trading quotation nor an investment recommendation.