Brazil’s Senate voted on Thursday to impeach the nation’s president, Dilma Rousseff. As a result of the decision, the Senate will move forward with an impeachment trial over allegations that Rousseff used illegal accounting methods to mask a growing government budget deficit. The suspended president has denied any wrongdoing.
Brazil’s steel association, IABr, wasn’t immediately available to comment the move on Thursday, but recent accounts make it evident the local steel sector is yet to establish a more solid dialogue with the new president, Michel Temer, who assumed the office as the trial continues for up to 180 days.
Representatives of Brazil’s steel association, IABr, met late in April with then-vice president Temer to ask his help for the struggling steel sector. At the time, the IABr representatives said the nation’s steel industry could eventually have more conditions to dialogue with Temer.
Temer is already aware of the challenging situation the local steel industry faces, but since Brazil has more deep economic problems to deal with, the help the steel sector expects could be postponed.
IABr expects Temer to facilitate exports, as domestic demand in Brazil’s domestic market has remained flat and has even declined. IABr’s president, Marco Polo, said earlier this year that only the government could save the struggling steel industry.
“The government needs to do what everyone in the world is doing: implement measures to protect its domestic market,” the executive said in an interview with the Brazilian press in March.
Brazil’s steel industry, which has been distant from Brazil’s government in terms of a sector-wide dialogue, has tried to ask the government for help when Rousseff was still in office.
A Brazilian minister said in H2 last year the nation had no stimulus package for the country’s steel industry, despite declining sales and rising concerns about the loss of competitiveness of the segment.
A Brazil minister in Rousseff’s government considered and even suggested a hike in Brazil’s imports tariff. It then created a joint commission to study and aid the challenges the domestic steel industry had ahead at the time.
So far, no decision on the proposed hike in the imports tariff was taken.