In September this year, Brazilian crude steel production totaled 2.8 million metric tons, falling slightly by 0.4 percent both compared to August this year and to September 2011, according to the Brazil Steel Institute (IABr).
Brazil's rolled steel product output totaled 2.2 million mt in September, falling by 4.7 percent month on month and up 4.4 percent year on year. Of this total, the country's flat steel output stood at 1.3 million mt - down 3.9 percent from August and up 10 percent year on year, while Brazil's long steel output amounted to 916,800 metric tons, falling by 5.85 percent month on month and down 2.5 percent compared to September 2011.
On the other hand, in the first nine months of this year, Brazil's crude steel output fell three percent to 26 million metric tons, while its rolled steel output increased by 3.3 percent to 19.9 million metric tons, including 11.5 million metric tons of flat products - up 5.6 percent, and 8.3 million metric tons of long products - up 0.3 percent, all compared to the corresponding period of 2011.
Domestic steel product sales totaled 1.8 million metric tons in September, decreasing 1.5 percent year on year, while domestic sales in the first nine months totaled 16.5 million metric tons, increasing by 1.1 percent compared to the same period last year.
Brazil's exports of steel products in September amounted to 772,400 metric tons, down 0.7 percent year on year, worth US$582 million. Steel product exports in the January-September period of this year totaled 7.4 million mt, worth US$5.4 billion, with decreases of 11.3 percent in volume and 15.5 percent in value compared to the corresponding period of 2011.
Meanwhile, the country's steel import volume in September totaled 341,100 metric tons (US$367.6 million), with the total in the first nine months reaching 3 million metric tons of steel products (US$3.5 billion), representing a 4.9 percent increase from the same period last year.