The Dominican Republic has yet to increase domestic demand for steel, as the country consumes only 47 percent of the steel it produces, a media report said on Monday.
The local market consumes about 188,000 mt/year of steel, out of a capacity of 400,000 mt/year, a figure that needs to be addressed, according to local steel association Adoacero.
“That is an opportunity that the industry could take advantage of, so it could grow in the country,” said Omar Castellanos, president at Adoacero.
The opportunity that arises to the Central American nation contrasts in many ways to the prospects that other Latin American countries face, such as Brazil, which has seen domestic demand for steel decline as a result of the challenging economic scenario the South America country currently experiences.
For the Adoacero executive, the opportunity that could boost domestic demand for steel in the Dominican Republic comes from the government side, which has been targeting major projects, such as the 770-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant Punta Catalina.
Castellanos said the nation’s steel industry isn’t against imports of steel from China, but added that local authorities should guarantee the foreign product meets the local quality standards.
According to the country’s General Directory of Customs, DGA, Dominican Republic exports of steel in H1 totaled US$33 million. Top destinations include Haiti, Puerto Rico, Surinam, Santa Lucia, Costa Rica and Jamaica.