According to the Brazil Steel Institute, Brazilian crude steel production totaled 3 million tonnes in July 2012, rising by 8.6% MoM and down by 4.1% YoY.

Brazil's rolled steel product output totaled 2.3 million tonnes in July 2012, rising by 3.8% MoM and up by 11.5% YoY. Of this total, the country's flat steel output stood at 1.3 million tonnes, up by 3.4% MoM and up by 22% YoY, while Brazil's long steel output amounted to 962,800 tonnes, rising by 4.4% MoM and down by 0.3% YoY.

On the other hand, in the first seven months of 2012, Brazil's crude steel output fell by 2.6% to 20.4 million tonnes, while its rolled steel output increased by 3.3% to 15.5 million tonnes, including 9 million tonnes of flat products, up by 5.8% and 6.5 million tonnes of long products, remaining unchanged, all compared to the corresponding period of 2011.

Domestic steel product sales totaled 1.8 million tonnes in July 2012, remaining stable year on year, while domestic sales in the first seven months totaled 12.8 million tonnes, increasing by 1.2% YoY.

Brazil's exports of steel products in July 2012 amounted to 724,200 tonnes, down by 19.5% YoY, worth USD 540 million. Steel product exports in the January to July 2012 period totaled 5.9 million tonnes, worth USD 4.3 billion, with decreases of 9.7% in volume and 13.8% in value compared to the corresponding period of 2011.

Meanwhile, the country's steel import volume in July totaled 337,100 tonnes (USD 376 million), with the total in the first seven months reaching 2.3 million tonnes of steel products (USD 2.7 billion), representing an 8.2% increase from the same period last year.

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