|
 Raw steel production in Brazil grew 6.9% in the first half this year over the same period last year, totaling 17.44 million tons. Steel products output increased 3.3%, and semi-finished products, 21.9%.
According to the president at the Brazilian Steel Institute (IBS), Flávio Azevedo, more than 80% of the sector's production went to the three major consumer segments of the steel production chain: civil construction, automobile industry, and the capital goods industry.
The export volume decreased 10.3%. Foreign sales totaled 5.05 million tons in the first half, with a surplus of US$ 3.66 billion. Azevedo explained that the reduction resulted from greater production and higher domestic sales.
"A significant share of products that are usually exported by national steel industries were destined to the domestic market, in which these three segments are generating strong demand," he asserted.
Imports, on the other hand, saw a 58.8% increase in volume in the first half, having reached 1.05 million tons. The figure represents growth of 77.8% in terms of imported value.
A significant share of the sector's imports is comprised of steel tracks, which are not manufactured in Brazil, according to Azevedo. Another part of the production is kept in stock in order to prevent shortage in the domestic market.
Raw steel production in the whole of 2008 should total to 36.27 million tons, growth of 7.4% in comparison with last year. Regarding domestic sales, the president at the IBS forecasts a 12.5% expansion this year, with a total of 23.12 million tons.
Exports should rise by 2.1% in comparison with the volume shipped in 2007 (10.31 million tons). In terms of value, however, the IBS projects an expansion of 16.7% for this year, to reach US$ 7.7 billion.
Azevedo informed that steel prices in the international market are on the rise. "And prices are going up in Brazil as well, because inputs are appreciating. Iron ore has risen from 60% to 90%, depending on quality. Petroleum coke has appreciated by more than 200%," he stated.
Azevedo claimed that the outlook is positive for the second half of 2008, as well as for next year. "There will be no lack of steel consumers next year, and there will be no shortage of laminates or steel next year."
ABr
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.