In August this year, Brazilian crude steel production totaled 2.95 million metric tons, rising by 1.4 percent as compared to July and up by 7.8 percent from August 2010, according to the Brazil Steel Institute (IABr).
Brazil's rolled steel product output totaled 2.1 million mt in August, rising by seven percent month on month and up 3.5 percent year on year. Of this total, the country's flat steel output stood at 1.18 million mt - up 17.58 percent over July and up 0.2 percent year on year, while its long steel output amounted to 924,100 metric tons, dropping by 4.1 percent month on month and up 8.7 percent compared to August 2010.
On the other hand, in the first eight months of this year, Brazil's crude steel output rose 7.8 percent, reaching 23.9 million metric tons, while its rolled steel output increased by 3.1 percent to 17 million metric tons, including 9.6 million metric tons of flat products - up 8.3 percent, and 7.4 million metric tons of long products - up 4.4 percent, all compared to the corresponding period of 2010.
Domestic sales totaled 1.8 million metric tons in August, up four percent from the same month last year and up 3.3 percent month on month, while sales in the first eight months totaled 14.5 million metric tons, increasing by 0.6 percent compared to the same period last year.
Exports of steel products in August amounted to 1.04 million metric tons - up 40.4 percent year on year, worth US$833 million. Exports in the January-August period of this year totaled 7.6 million mt, worth US$5.8 billion, with increases of 78.3 percent in volume and 101.3 percent in value compared to the corresponding period of 2010.
Meanwhile, the country's steel import volume in August totaled 367,100 metric tons (US$450 million), with the first eight months' total reaching 2.5 million metric tons of steel products (US$3 billion), representing a 34.8 percent increase from the same period last year