According to a Friday statement from the Brazilian Steel Institute (IABr), Brazilian steelmakers produced 2.8 million metric tons of crude steel in January, an increase of 3.8 percent year-on-year, and 16.2 percent month-on-month.
Product-specific results showed that flat rolled steel output totaled 2.1 million tons, reflecting an increase of 0.4 percent from January 2010, and a 15.4 percent increase from December 2010, when many Brazilian mills reduced output in response to a rise in steel import levels and difficulty securing coal supplies.
In fact, January steel imports were 10.6 percent lower year-on-year, at 343,600 tons, due to rising international steel prices. However, export levels increased to 1.1 million tons, a 60 percent increase from January 2010. As for sales, domestic steel products sales increased 4.5 percent year-on-year in January, to 1.7 million tons, which also reflected an 11.4 percent increase from the prior month.