The Brazilian steel industry spent 2017 trying to recover from its worst crisis ever in 2016, when several mills cut production levels to adapt themselves to weak market demand.
Last year's crude steel output, local sales and apparent consumption figures improved, but on a poor basis of comparison. Consumption in Brazil, for instance, increased by 5.30% year on year in 2017, to 19.18 million tonnes, according to national steel institute A??o Brasil. This growth, however, was in part driven by higher import volumes, which rose by 23.90% over the same period, to 2.33 million tonnes, against an increase of only 2.30% in domestic sales, reaching 16.90 million tonnes. Stronger signs of a rebound in the Brazilian steel sector are only being recorded now in 2018. As a result, A??o Brasil had revised upward its forecast for the country's steel consumption, sales and output this year, due to recovering market conditions. Apparent steel use in Brazil is now expected to rise by 6.9% year on year in 2018, to 20.50 million tonnes, the group said. It also predicts Brazilian domestic...