Brazil's domestic steel sales to increase this year

Brazil’s domestic steel sales to increase this year

Brazil's national steel institute IBS said at the Annual Meeting and Conferences of IISI in Turkey that Brazil's domestic steel sales are expected to reach 17.6 million tons in 2004 with an increase of 14% compared to 2003. The rising domestic steel sales are an indicator of strong growth in Brazil's economy. Country's economy is expected to expand by 4% this year after contracting 0.2% in 2003. In addition, steel companies in Brazil will likely export 12 million tons of steel they produce this year with a decline of 7.5% compared to last year. Brazil's steel industry produced 21.86 million tons of crude steel in the first eight months of the year and 7.51 million tons of this figure was exported.