Brazil's steel distributors association, Inda, has disclosed that its members' steel sales fell 9.4 percent year on year to 369,900 mt in May, decreasing by 3.4 percent compared to April. In the January-May period of the current year, steel sales of Brazilian distributors rose by 4.4 percent on year-on-year basis to 1.9 million mt.
Distributors' steel stocks stood at around 1.1 million mt at the end of May, increasing 5.9 percent from a year earlier and up by 4.3 percent compared to the end of April this year.
Meanwhile, Inda's distributors purchased 413,900 mt of steel from steel producers in May, an increase of 5.7 percent from a year earlier and up 3.1 percent month on month. In the January-May period of the current year, Brazilian distributors' purchase volumes were 4.4 percent higher than in the same period of the previous year, totaling 1.9 million mt.
Brazilian distributors' imports (including heavy plates, hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanized hot plates, electro-galvanized sheets, pre-painted plates and galvalume) registered a 8.8 percent drop in May compared to the same month in 2012, following the strong year-on-year increase of 28.9 percent recorded in the previous month, while they were down 25.2 percent month on month, amounting to 100,200 mt. In the first five months of the year, Brazilian distributors' steel imports fell by 23.8 percent compared to the same period of 2012, amounting to 534,400 mt.
Inda said it projects a five percent decline in sales and purchases in June this year.