The steel industry in South America is set to recover in 2017

On October 25th, during the Latin American Steel Conference (Alacero 57) the President of Alacero Jefferson De Paula (also member of the Executive Committee of ArcelorMittal) was positive about the perspectives for the regional steel industry in the next period.

In his words: “The global economic scenario shows signs of recovery, and the fragile economic situation in Latin American will see a positive turn with international entities expecting a growth of 1.6% in 2017. In Brazil, expectations for the next year are encouraging, backed up by a political will to overcome the crisis”.
Latin America will consume 64.8 Mt of steel in 2016 (6.5% less than 2015). Despite such drop, there is an excepted growth of 3.6% for the next year in comparison with 2016, because a significant growth in the consumption of steel in the main markets of the region is expected. Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Colombia are forecasting an increase of 3.2%, 3.8%, 5.8% and 3.9% in 2017, respectively.
In 2015, China shipped 9.4 Mt of steel to Latin America, the largest volume of its history. Most of the times, this steel arrived with prices below the production costs, and there have been many cases of initiatives to fight unfair competition practices, using the mechanisms allowed by WTO. As of now, Latina America has 56 commercial defense suits in effect, 36 already closed against China and 11 ongoing (8 against China).
“One of the major challenges for the global steel industry is to reduce surplus of steel installed capacity”, added Jefferson De Paula. The surplus of global capacity in the steel industry increased from 464 Mt in 2011 to 739 Mt in 2015. China answers for 61% of that total (453 Mt in 2015), followed by South Korea and the European Union, with 66 Mt and 63 Mt of surplus respectively. According to Mr De Paula, China will not reduce its steel installed capacity in the short-term. More at http://www.alacero.org/en/page/prensa/noticias/jefferson-de-paula-a-cheerful-recovery-of-the-economy-and-of-the-steel-industry Check out more news from Expometals.net at this link >>  Stay tuned about the next conferences and events >>