Steel Trade Body Reports 3% Slump in South American Output

Author: Paul Ploumis

May 29,2019 09:14 AM

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The monthly statistics for April 2019 published by the World Steel Association (worldsteel) suggests nearly 3% decline in steel production by South American countries. The regional output totaled 3.638 million tonnes (Mt) during the month, which is slightly lower by 2.9% when compared with the output of 3.749 Mt during the same month a year before.

Brazil, the largest regional producer, reported marginal decline in output by 1.9% from 2.942 Mt in April 2018 to 2.886 Mt in April this year. Argentina too reported over 9% decline in output over the previous year. The country’s steel production dropped from 463,000 tonnes to 421,000 tonnes. The third largest steel producer in the region was Peru, which posted 4% year-on-year growth in crude steel production from 101,000 tonnes to 105,000 tonnes.

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The reduced regional output was mainly on account of drastic production decline in Venezuela, Colombia and Paraguay, which reported 44%, 35% and 20% decline respectively. Uruguay too reported drop in output during the month.

The South American crude steel production totaled 14.139 Mt in Jan-Apr ’19, down by 3.8% from the production of 14.696 Mt during the corresponding four-month period in 2018. The top five producers were Brazil (11.277 Mt), Argentina (1.501 Mt), Peru (403,000 tonnes), Chile (399,000 tonnes) and Colombia (301,000 tonnes).

The Venezuelan output more than halved during the initial four months of the current year, dropping from 68,000 tonnes to 32,000 tonnes.