Companies in the state of Sao Paulo’s civil construction sector are organizing a group to import rebar from Turkey, according to Sinduscon SP, the sector association in that state.
As previously reported by SteelOrbis, a similar group in the state of Santa Catarina has already arranged to import rebar from Turkey, as an alternative to avoid the domestic prices of the product, considered as extremely high in comparison to international prices.
According to Odair Senra, President of Sinduscon SP, the higher prices of products such as steel and cement, since last year, resulted in an economic imbalance of the construction contracts, leading to an attractive scenario for imports, chiefly when considering that the import tax for rebar was recently reduced to 4 percent.
He mentioned that the Brazilian production of rebar is concentrated in a small number of producers and lacks competition, suggesting that an industrial policy should be adopted to encourage the settlement of more steel producers in Brazil.
“In the meantime, we have to import,” Senra added.