Brazilian steel producer Gerdau took a stronger stance in negotiations with pig iron and ferrous scrap suppliers in the second quarter to keep its metal spread from falling, chief executive officer Gustavo Werneck said in a conference call on Wednesday August 7.
"It has been difficult to pass on higher production costs in a low-demand scenario [by way of higher product prices], so we needed to take action on scrap and pig iron prices," Werneck told journalists. "Now, we expect the price of these raw materials to remain stable through the second half of the year."Apparent long steel consumption in Brazil totaled 4.15 million tonnes in the first six months of 2019, falling by 1.5% from 4.21 million tonnes a year before, according to data from...