The Brazilian Steel Institute (IABr) announced that crude steel output rose to 2.96 million mt in June, down 9.6 percent over May but up 3.9 percent compared to June 2010.
Brazil's rolled steel product output totaled 2.14 million mt in June, decreasing by 4.46 percent month on month and down 8.4 percent year on year. Of this total, the country's flat steel output stood at 1.17 million mt - down 6.9 percent over May and down 17.1 percent year on year, while its long steel output amounted to 966,300 metric tons, dropping by 1.34 percent month on month and up five percent compared to June 2010.
On the other hand, Brazil's crude steel production in the first half of the year amounted 17,71 million mt with an increase of 8.2 percent compared to the same period in 2010 while the country's rolled steel output increased by 2.2 percent to 12.81 million metric tons, including 7.3 million metric tons of flat products - up seven percent, and 5.49 million metric tons of long products - up 5.1 percent, all compared to the corresponding period of 2010.
Domestic sales totaled 1.8 million metric tons in June, down 8.2 percent from the same month last year. Sales in the first six months totaled 10.9 million metric tons, increasing slightly by 0.7 percent compared to the same period last year.
Compared to June 2010, steel imports in Brazil increased 24.4 percent to 317,200 mt (US$389.5 million) after a fall of 42.4 percent recorded in May this year. In the first six months, Brazil's total steel imports reached 1.73 million metric tons of steel products (US$2.06 billion), representing a 14.4 percent increase from the same period last year.
Exports of steel products in June amounted to 1.01 million metric tons - up 29.6 percent year on year, worth US$810.2 million. Exports in the first half of this year totaled 4.27 million mt, worth US$1.95 billion, with increases of 29.6 percent in volume and 60.3 percent in value compared to the corresponding period of 2010.