Alacero reviews recent forecasts: a slight decrease of consumption due to the global uncertainty

The most recent forecasts of consumption for Latin America, elaborated during the last week of June 2012, were slightly below the numbers estimated in April 2012, announces Alacero, the Latin American Steel Association on its website.
The consumption for 2012, which had been estimated at 62.8 million tons in the beginning of the year, now is expected to be 62.0 million tons, a 5.5% increase comparing to the previous year.   In addition, it is expected that the consumption for next year reaches a volume of 65.3 million tons, 5.3% more than this year, but below the expected 6% growth forecasted in April 2012.   These downward revisions were the result of a growing global uncertainty, the persisting debt crisis in the European Union, which resulted in lower economic expectations and consequently lower forecast for steel consumption in the region.   Argentina, Chile and Colombia revised their expectations downwards, while the forecasts were maintained for Brazil and Peru. Furthermore, Mexico and Venezuela revised their original consumption growth projections faintly upwards for 2012 and 2013, based on the encouraging results of the first quarter of 2012.