Slight increase in Brazilian steel sales reflects short-term recovery

Sindisider, the Brazilian steel distributors' association, released a report on Friday that states that Brazilian steel distribution companies sold 5 percent more flat products in January 2012 compared to January 2011. Distributors in Brazil sold 356,600 tons of products during January--a 9.8 percent increase from December. The increase in sales pushed the inventory of flat-rolled products down by 0.3 percent to 997,900 tons from December. Inventory traded at 2.8 percent times sales of flat steel in January, which is down from 3.1 percent in December. According to the report, imports in January rose by 40.8 percent, totaling 183,600 tons. However, Sindisider noted that they believe the recovery is short-term and that sales this year will continue to grow at half the pace they did in 2011 due to infrastructure plans that are being slowly executed.