The Brazilian steel industry is currently operating at a 66 percent capacity rate, amid an improved outlook for the domestic market, a Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (CSN) executive said on Thursday.
David Salama, executive director at CSN, said at the S&P Global Platts Steel Markets Latin America Conference in São Paulo that the local steel sector is rebounding. Capacity use in Brazil should increase to 70.5 percent in 2019, Salama said, from 69 percent in 2018, and from 68.2 percent in 2017.
Salama said improved capacity use should help local steelmakers to resume blast furnaces, which had been shut down in the past due to weak domestic demand.
Salama said the company remains focused on supplying the domestic market, adding that “We want to improve our market share in coated steel products.”
He said the local automotive market segment demands coated steel products, and helping the Brazilian steel industry in this recovery process.