The Brazilian steel association, A??o Brasil, has slashed its forecasts for steel production and consumption in 2019, because of a weak performance in the first half of the year, it said on Thursday July 25.
Steel output was now expected to reach 35.55 million tonnes this year, growth of only 0.40% from the 35.41 million tonnes produced in 2018.This compared with the previous expectation for growth of 2.20% year-on-year, published in April."The performance of the steel sector in the first half has frustrated our expectations," A??o Brasil executive president Marco Polo de Mello Lopes said.Domestic steel sales were now estimated to increase by 2.50% this year, to 19.39...