During the ongoing Alacero 58 Congress held in Cancún, Mexico and attended by SteelOrbis, Alacero’s General Director, Rafael Rubio noted that Latin America as a whole has the capacity to satisfy the domestic requirements of each member country. In the case of Mexico, he noted that Mexico has the capacity to satisfy the 35 percent that is presently being imported.
Jefferson de Paula said that his desire is not to protect Latin America against imports, as they play an import role, but to protect the region from dumped material that due to its subsidized nature negatively affects domestic markets. He added that while regional countries such as Argentina and Brazil have excess capacity, countries such as Colombia, Ecuador, Chile and Peru need imports due to the scarcity of domestic mills.
Director and Vice Chairman of the Tenaris Board and Canacero President Guillermo Vogel noted that the effect from unfair trading is three-fold, namely, the effect on the local market, the effect on the ability of national firms to export, and finally the circular loss in competitiveness in remaining business segments due to decreased utilization rates that further increase operational costs.