In a bilateral meeting expected to take place today in the sidelines of the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro will ask US President Joe Biden to release, in part or totally, the current barriers against Brazilian exports of steel products to the US, chiefly slab.
Steel imports have a 25 percent tax in the US, under Section 232, which also establishes a tax-free quota of 3.5 million mt per year to Brazil.
The reasoning behind the Brazilian demand is that Brazilian slab producers import coking coal from the US, and while increasing slab imports from Brazil, the importers in the US will be less dependent on Russian slab.
In 2021, Brazil exported 5.57 million mt of slabs to the US, while during the first four months of 2022, the volume has reached 2.32 million mt.