In August this year, Brazilian crude steel production totaled 2.9 million metric tons, rising by 1.2 percent as compared to July and up by 7.8 percent from August 2009, according to the Brazil Steel Institute (IABr).
Brazil's rolled steel product output totaled 2.1 million mt in August, falling by 14 percent month on month and up 5.7 percent year on year. Of this total, the country's flat steel output stood at 1.25 million mt - down 14.08 percent over July and up 5.5 percent year on year, while its long steel output amounted to 850,900 metric tons, dropping by 13.89 percent month on month and up six percent compared to August 2009.
On the other hand, in the first eight months of this year, Brazil's crude steel output rose 40.5 percent, reaching 22.1 million metric tons, while its rolled steel output increased by 45.8 percent to 17.6 million metric tons, including 10.58 million metric tons of flat products - up 52.7 percent, and 7.07 million metric tons of long products - up 36.5 percent, all compared to the corresponding period of 2009.
Domestic sales totaled 1.8 million metric tons in August, up 22.4 percent from the same month last year and down 3.3 percent month on month, while sales in the first eight months totaled 14.5 million metric tons, increasing by 47.7 percent compared to the same period last year.
Exports of steel products in August amounted to 585,500 metric tons - down 43.1 percent year on year, worth US$414 million. Exports in the January-August period of this year totaled 5.4 million mt, worth US$3.4 billion, with increases of 3.9 percent in volume and 17.6 percent in value compared to the corresponding period of 2009.
Meanwhile, the country's steel import volume in August totaled 562,000 metric tons (US$535 million), with the first eight months' total reaching 3.8 million metric tons of steel products (US$3.43 billion), representing a 155.6 percent increase from the same period last year.
Brazil's apparent consumption of steel products in August was 2.4 million metric tons, totaling 18.1 million metric tons in 2010. These figures represented increases of 40.1 percent and 61.3 percent respectively, both compared to the year-ago period.