The Brazilian flat steel market is not seeing any good perspectives for the coming year, a steel executive said on Tuesday during the Alacero conference held November 9-11 in Mexico City.
According to Benjamin Baptista, president at ArcelorMittal Brazil, like other Latin American countries, Brazil has been facing a growing number of imports from China.
Baptista said flat steel imports from China are “predatory” for the nation’s economy, adding the Asian country increased its flat steel exports to Brazil from 341,900 mt in 2003 to 1.9 million mt from January to September 2014.
The executive also addressed several challenges Brazil needs to meet in order to make its steel industry to grow, such as a “fiscal adjustment”, a stronger Real currency, and the elimination of cumulative taxes over investments.