From AFR:

BHP iron ore shipments steady as Vale downgrades again

BHP is expected to confirm its flagship iron ore division remains on track to meet its full-year export target, allowing the company to capitalise on an extremely weak performance by the world's biggest producer of the steelmaking ingredient.

Analysts believe BHP shipped just over 68 million tonnes of iron ore from Western Australia over the past three months, with Tuesday's quarterly update set to come just 72 hours after Brazilian miner Vale downgraded its iron ore "fines" production target by between 7 per cent and 9 per cent.

Vale was supposed to produce between 340 million and 355 million tonnes of iron ore fines in 2020, but that target has been rendered impossible by heavy rain, unplanned outages at the company's flagship S11D operation, regulatory delays related to catastrophic dam failures, and disruptions to logistics caused by the coronavirus.

The miner was supposed to produce between 68 million and 73 million tonnes of iron ore in the three months to March 31, but in February downgraded that tally to between 63 million and 68 million tonnes.

Vale confirmed at the weekend that it had fallen well short of its downgraded target, producing just 59.6 million tonnes of iron ore fines in the first three months of 2020.

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Vale's sales volumes over the past three months were even weaker at 51.6 million tonnes, a staggering 33 per cent lower than in the final three months of 2019.

Even more surprising was the fact Vale's sales volumes were more than 6 per cent lower than in the first three months of 2019, a period that included huge disruptions from the catastrophic Brumadinho dam failure, which killed more than 200 people.