Brazilian steel output increases to 32.9 mio tons in 2004

Brazilian steel output increases to 32.9 mio tons in 2004

According to the data released by the Brazilian Steel Institute IBS, Brazilian crude steel output reached 32.9 million tons in 2004, revealing a rise of 5.8% compared to 2003. In December alone, steel output amounted to 2.79 million tons. This figure showed a 5.1% rise compared to December 2003 and a 1.2% rise compared to November 2004. Despite the increases, December's figure was still below the record 2.89 million tons registered in August 2004. Long products output were recorded as 9.1 million tons last year. Long products output reached 867'000 tons in December, up by 37% compared to the same period of last year. In 2004, flat products output rose by 9.4% from a year earlier to 14.4 million tons. In addition, flat products output amounted to 1.2 million tons last month with a rise of 10.4% against the corresponding period of last year. The output of semi-finished products, which fell by 17.3% year-on-year to 659'000 tons in December, reached 7.2 million tons in 2004. IBS also said that Brazil's steel industry will increase annual production capacity to 46 million tons by 2010. Investments in Brazilian steel sector are expected to reach $12.7 billion by 2010. Steel companies will invest $2.5 billion in 2005 and $3.6 billion in expansion projects, creating about 40'000 jobs in the industry. In addition, Brazilian steel sector consumed 17.2 million tons of steel in 2004 and $5 billion worth of steel products were exported.