Brazilian distributors advise against flats’ price increase

Brazilian steel market demand has remained at a low level since the beginning of the year and doubt remains whether customers will not accept the price adjustments for domestic end-users and distributors. So says the president of the national flat steel distributors’ association (Inda), Carlos Loureiro, in a statement to media monitored by Kallanish.

“Despite the gap between domestic and imported steel prices, the Brazilian steelmakers should not implement the planned increase of steel prices due to the lack of demand,” Loureiro says.

The steel sector in Brazil will begin to see the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak as from the beginning of April, the president adds

“The fall in steel demand should worsen as a result of the expected production stoppages of large mills. These will have serious and unprecedented consequences for the automotive and white goods’ sectors in the coming months,” Loureiro continues. The scale of production adjustments and the contraction in the market cannot yet be assessed, as the Covid-19 outbreak in Brazil is expected to spread in April, he adds.

Most of the steelmakers in Brazil, such as CSN, Usiminas and Gerdau, have already implemented preventive security measures at their plants and are working normally.