Sales of steel products in the Brazilian domestic market reached 1.82 million mt in May, a 3.5 percent increase from April, according to the country’s steel institute IABr.
Under the same comparative basis, apparent consumption of steel products increased by 5.8 percent to 2.1 million mt, while the country’s production of crude steel increased by 1.7 percent to 2.97 million mt.
IABr also reported that the index measuring expectations of steel entrepreneurs in the sector declined from May by 1.3 points to 45.4 points, remaining below 50.0 points, the line above which reflects positive expectations.
In May, sales of flat products in the Brazilian domestic market reached 989,000 mt, sales of longs reached 770,000 mt, and sales of semi-finished steel products totaled 65,000 mt.
Brazilian steel exports in May totaled 161,000 mt for flats, 138,000 mt for longs, 526,000 mt for slab and 49,000 mt for billets.