Brazil’s local steel association, IABr, said this week that there should be more mill shutdowns in Brazil in the short-term if there’s no stimulus to export.
According to Alexandre Lyra, president of the Vallourec group in Brazil and president of the IABr council, overall capacity utilization in the country is currently at an average of 60 percent. In order to be sustainable, production should run closer to 80 percent capacity, he said.
IABr, along with other exporting industrial segments in Brazil, presented this week a document to Brazil’s industry, foreign trade and services minister, Marcos Pereira, requesting more export incentives so they can recover their competitiveness as compared to other countries.
Industrial segment requests include the reestablishment of the Reintegra program, in which companies could increase a tax return from exports from 0.1 percent currently to 5 percent.
IABr plans to meet with the executive secretary of the Investment Partnership Program, Welington Moreira Franco, to present the benefits the steel industry and associated segments could bring to the recovering Brazilian economy.