Brazilian production of crude steel has reached 2.716 million mt in January, 0.4 percent more than in January 2023, according to the Brazilian steel institute IABr.
Under the same comparative basis, production of rolled products increased by 8.0 percent to 1.97 million mt, with the production of flat products increasing by 9.9 percent to 1.18 million mt and the production of long products increasing by 5.4 percent to 794,000 mt.
Similarly, domestic sales of steel products increased by 1.5 percent to 1.6 million mt and the apparent consumption of steel products increased by 1.4 percent to 1.9 million mt, while exports increased by 1.8 percent to 967,000 mt and imports declined by 2.9 percent to 367,000 mt.
When comparing to December 2023, the crude steel production increased by 8.1 percent, the domestic sales increased by 11.8 percent, exports increased by 14.8 percent, apparent consumption increased by 1.6 percent and imports declined by 28.2 percent.
According to IABr, despite the reduction in January, imports in 2024 will maintain the high volumes of 2023, mostly derived from imports of steel products at dumping prices.
The Brazilian steel industry maintains expectations of the adoption by authorities of a 25 percent import tax for steel products, against an average 12 percent today.
