Latin American Iron & Steel Institute (Ilafa) disclosed that primary iron output in Latin America fell 9.7 percent year on year to 25.9 million tons in the first five months of the year.
Brazil's primary output also decreased from 14.4 million tons to 12.5 million tons during the same period.
On the other hand, hot rolled steel output in the region rose 5.5 percent year on year to 20 million tons in January-May 2006 period.