According to Brazilian steel institute IABr, with the surge of steel imports starting in April this year and maintaining an upward trend since, Brazil is expected to end up importing more than 5 million mt of steel products in 2023, surpassing the previous record of 4.4 million mt imported in 2010.
In September, the volume of steel imports increased by 138 percent from September 2022, reaching 549,000 mt, of which 56 percent imported from China.
According to Marco Polo Mello Lopes, China is operating its steel industry at a fast pace, with exports reaching 100 million mt per year, as the local economy is not able to absorb such excess production.
Lopes mentioned that the Chinese government owns most of the country’s steel industry, operating with negative margins, as their export prices are not in line with the reality of production costs.
During September, the penetration of imported products in Brazilian apparent steel consumption has reached 23.2 percent, against an average of 12.3 percent between 2013 and 2023.
The IABr unveiled forecasts of crude steel production in 2023 reduced by 5 percent from 2022 to 32.4 million mt, while under the same comparative basis exports should decline by 0.3 percent to 11.9 million mt and apparent domestic consumption should decline by 1.5 percent to 23.2 million mt.
The Brazilian steel industry has requested that federal authorities adopt a 25 percent import tax for steel products, as an alternative to avoid the total stoppage of steel plants, most of which are already operating at low pace.