In February this year, Brazilian crude steel production totaled 2.78 million metric tons, falling by 1.2 percent as compared to January and up by 3.4 percent from February last year, according to the Brazil Steel Institute (IABr).
Brazil's rolled steel product output totaled 2.1 million mt in February, rising by 2.4 percent month on month and up 2.3 percent year on year. Of this total, the country's flat steel output stood at 1.2 million mt - up 2.9 percent over January and up 2.8 percent year on year, while Brazil's long steel output amounted to 881,900 metric tons, rising by 1.8 percent month on month and up 1.5 percent compared to February 2011.
On the other hand, in the first two months of this year, Brazil's crude steel output rose 2.5 percent, reaching 5.6 million metric tons, while its rolled steel output increased by 2.8 percent to 4.1 million metric tons, including 2.4 million metric tons of flat products - up 1.8 percent, and 1.7 million metric tons of long products - up 4.2 percent, all compared to the corresponding period of 2011.
Domestic steel product sales totaled 1.7 million metric tons in February, falling by 2.8 percent year on year, while sales in the first two months totaled 3.4 million metric tons, increasing by 1.3 percent compared to the same period last year.
Exports of steel products in February amounted to 987,000 metric tons - up 13.4 percent year on year, worth US$691.5 million. Exports in the January-February period of this year totaled 1.8 million mt, worth US$1.3 billion, with decreases of 5.9 percent in volume and 4.8 percent in value compared to the corresponding period of 2011.
Meanwhile, the country's steel import volume in January totaled 319,200 metric tons (US$383 million), with the first two months' total reaching 657,800 metric tons of steel products (US$804 million), representing a 9.5 percent increase from the same period last year.