The Brazilian Steel Institute (IBS) has reported that Brazilian steelmakers produced 2.971 million metric tons of crude steel in January, up 9.9 percent from the amount produced in January 2007.
Brazilian production of long and flat products was also up in January, with longs output up 17.6 percent year on year, due to strong demand from civil construction and infrastructure products, and flats output up 7.8 percent year on year due to the strong Brazilian auto industry as well as demand from the oil, gas and naval sectors, the IBS said.
The country's domestic sales of rolled products improved in January as well, totaling 1.780 million mt, up 26.7 percent from 1.405 million mt in the same month last year. Meanwhile, domestic sales of semi-finished products were up 44.2 percent in January 2008, totaling 68,800 mt.
With Brazilian steelmakers becoming increasingly focused on meeting domestic demand within the scope of the improving national economy and the government's growth plan, export steel sales continued to decline in January, with figures down 29.9 percent from the same month of the previous year, to 554,100 mt.