Brazilian sales of flat steel products in the domestic market increased 12 percent in the first half (H1) of 2017, year-on-year, to 5.4 million mt, a top executive said this week during the Brazil Steel Congress held from August 22-23 in Brasilia.
Sergio Leite, CEO at flats producer Usiminas, said the increased domestic consumption of flats has been partially fueled by rising imports.
The distribution chain accounts for 50 percent of the demand of the country’s flat steel market.
According to Leite, in H1 this year flats imports surged over 125 percent, year-on-year, to 700,000 mt.
“China is a point of concern for us. It has been presenting trade commerce practices that can’t be considered fair. We’re now waiting for the results of an antidumping (AD) probe into the Chinese and Russian exports of flats to Brazil. We expect a favorable decision in the next few weeks,” Leite said.
At the same time flats imports, especially from China, increased in Brazil, several export markets for the Brazilian flats segment are slowly shutting down.
“We see certain tension in the export market at a global level, as some markets are getting stricter. See the case of the US, for example. The Brazilian flat steel industry was hit by AD duties on its main products, including HRC, CRC, heavy plates, and we now have the Section 232 [investigation]. Europe is likewise becoming stricter for [Brazilian] HRC imports,” the executive noted.
“Often we see in Brazil a liberal speech, but I wonder if we’re not in the opposite way of the world in terms of foreign trade,” he said.
Leite said the Brazilian flats steel segment saw flats exports increase 25 percent in H1, year-on-year, to 5.6 million mt. Slab exports in H1 rose 31 percent, year-on-year, to 4.1 million, while finished exports improved 9 percent in the same period to 1.5 million mt.
Top destinations for Brazilian slab are the US (46 percent), Germany (25 percent) and Turkey (10 percent).
“We’ll continue our efforts towards exports, but we need competitive costs. Who’s competitive will be able to export,” he said.