Brazil flat steel sales by local distributors in November declined 8.9 percent, month-on-month, and 23.9 percent year-on-year, to 254,700 mt, according to information made available to SteelOrbis on Wednesday by the nation’s distributor association, Inda.
Following the same downtrend, purchases of steel by local distributors in November diminished 6.3 percent, month-on-month, and 26.3 percent, year-on-year, reaching 244,100 mt.
Inventory turnover reached 3.7 months in November, while the volume of inventory declined 1.1 percent, month-on-month, to 935,000 mt, the trade group said.
Steel imports in November declined 26 percent, month-on-month, reflecting weaker sales expectations for December, and droped 48.4 percent, year-on-year, to 67,300 mt.
As for the cumulative period of January to November, purchases of steel by local distributors declined 23.5 percent, year-on-year, to 2.9 million mt, while sales and imports declined 22.7 percent to 3 million mt and 20.4 percent to 1.4 million mt, respectively.
Inda said both purchases and sales of flat steel by distributors are expected to fall about 20 percent in December.