In October this year, Brazilian crude steel production totaled 3.15 million metric tons, rising by 10.1 percent compared to September this year and up 7.7 percent compared to September 2011, according to the Brazil Steel Institute (IABr).
Brazil's rolled steel product output totaled 2.3 million mt in October, rising by 4.7 percent month on month and up 6.4 percent year on year. Of this total, the country's flat steel output stood at 1.3 million mt - up 6.7 percent over September and up 18.4 percent year on year, while Brazil's long steel output amounted to 933,600 metric tons, rising by 1.8 percent month on month and down 7.2 percent compared to October 2011.
On the other hand, in the first 10 months of this year, Brazil's crude steel output fell 1.8 percent to 29.2 million metric tons, while its rolled steel output increased by 3.4 percent to 22.1 million metric tons, including 12.8 million metric tons of flat products - up 6.5 percent, and 9.3 million metric tons of long products - down 0.5 percent, all compared to the corresponding period of 2011.
Domestic steel product sales totaled 1.8 million metric tons in October, stable year on year, while domestic sales in the first 10 months totaled 18.3 million metric tons, increasing by one percent compared to the same period last year.
Brazil's exports of steel products in October amounted to 761,200 metric tons, up 2.3 percent year on year, worth US$573.5 million. Steel product exports in the January-October period of this year totaled 8.2 million mt, worth US$6 billion, with decreases of 10.2 percent in volume and 15.1 percent in value compared to the corresponding period of 2011.
Meanwhile, the country's steel import volume in October totaled 343,300 metric tons (US$331.3 million), with the total in the first 10 months reaching 3.2 million metric tons of steel products (US$3.9 billion), representing a 4.8 percent increase from the same period last year.