The Brazilian government has implemented an import tax reduction for rebar of the CA-50 and CA-60 grades to 4.0 percent, until the end of the year, as an alternative to reduce the country’s inflation rate, currently reaching 12.85 percent over the last 12 months.
The original plans were for import tax reduction to zero for all steel products used in civil construction, such as beams and wire rod, but it was limited to this final figure after claims by the Brazilian Steel Institute (IABR), that the impact of rebar on the inflation rate is limited to 0.03 percentage points.
According to IABR, the demand for rebar in the domestic market is fully supplied and there is no price speculation for the product.
The institute added that the implementation of the import tax reduction is opposed to the policy adopted by the main steel producing countries, which are imposing barriers to predatory imports, in view of the world excess capacity of the steel production, estimated at 518 million mt per year.