In March this year, Brazilian crude steel production totaled 3.1 million metric tons, rising by 11.8 percent as compared to February and up by 2.2 percent from February last year, according to the Brazil Steel Institute (IABr).
Brazil's rolled steel product output totaled 2.4 million mt in March, rising by 13 percent month on month and up 3.4 percent year on year. Of this total, the country's flat steel output stood at 1.4 million mt - up 17.6 percent over February and up 7.9 percent year on year, while Brazil's long steel output amounted to 942,300 metric tons, rising by 2.7 percent month on month and down 2.7 percent compared to March 2011.
On the other hand, in the first quarter of this year, Brazil's crude steel output rose 2.4 percent, reaching 8.7 million metric tons, while its rolled steel output increased by three percent to 6.5 million metric tons, including 3.8 million metric tons of flat products - up four percent, and 2.7 million metric tons of long products - up 1.7 percent, all compared to the corresponding period of 2011.
Domestic steel product sales totaled 1.9 million metric tons in March, rising by 1.5 percent year on year, while sales in the first quarter totaled 5.3 million metric tons, increasing by 1.3 percent compared to the same period last year.
Exports of steel products in March amounted to 749,400 metric tons - down 14 percent year on year, worth US$528.3 million. Exports in the January-March period of this year totaled 2.6 million mt, worth US$1.8 billion, with decreases of 8.4 percent in volume and 8.9 percent in value compared to the corresponding period of 2011.
Meanwhile, the country's steel import volume in March totaled 338,400 metric tons (US$398 million), with the total in the first quarter reaching 996,200 metric tons of steel products (US$1.2 billion), representing a 20.1 percent increase from the same period last year.