Alcero, the non-profit Latin American steel association has reported that in Jan-Aug 2015, China shipped 5.7 MT of finished steel to Latin America, 5% more than the 5.4 MT recorded during the same period in 2014. Regional finished steel production in the same period, went down 3% from last year. This confirms the difficult and complex situation the Latin American steel market is going through.
Total exports of Chinese finished steel continue to grow, totalling 65.4 MT in Jan-Aug 2015, 28% more than in the same period of 2014. Latin America accounted for 8.7% of these exports, 1.9% points below its participation in Jan/Aug 2014 (10.6%).
In August 2015, Latin America received 712,000 tons of finished steel from China, 21% more than in July 2015 (590,000 tons), and in line with August 2014 (715,000 tons).
The main Latin American destinations for Chinese finished steel in Jan-Aug 2015 were Central America (received 961,000 tons, 17% of the region); Brazil (928 thousand tons, 16%) and Chile (793 thousand tons, 14%).
59% of the finished steel imported by Latin America from China during Jan-Jul 2015, were flat products, which reached 2.9 MT.
