According to the Brazilian Steel Distributors' Institute (INDA), flat rolled steel inventories in Brazil totaled 1.02 million metric tons at the end of April, up 0.2 percent month on month, but decreasing 17 percent year on year. At the end of April, the flat rolled steel stock volume in Brazil was equivalent to about three months of sales, up from the equivalent of 2.7 months of consumption in the previous month.
For May, the expectation of INDA is that distributors will raise their purchases and sales of steel by about five percent, from 346,800 mt and 344,800 mt respectively in April.
In the January-April period of this year, Brazilian steel distributors' sales fell 1.6 percent year on year to 1.4 million mt, according to INDA. In the same period, the automotive industry, responsible for 30 percent of steel consumption in the country, saw a 10 percent drop in production.
Meanwhile, INDA has raised its sales projections for 2012 by six percent after the Brazilian government announced an economic stimulus package to stimulate certain industrial sectors, covering industrial vehicles, machinery and equipment, the main consumers of the commodity in the country. Carlos Loureiro, president of INDA, said that recent measures including the reduction of taxes on vehicle purchases, should boost domestic steel consumption.