Brazil ferrous scrap exports down 72% in June

In Brazil, exports of ferrous scrap, an input used mainly by steel mills to produce steel, reached just 12,830 tonnes in June, a sharp drop of 72% compared to the same month last year when exports totaled 45,641 tonnes.

In total, in the first six months of the year, the figures for foreign scrap sales remained positive, with a total of 231,498 tonnes, an increase of 28% compared to the 180,695 tonnes registered from January to June 2021, according to data released by the Department of Foreign Trade (Secex) of the Ministry of Economy.

According to the National Institute of Recycling (Inesfa), an entity that represents the more than 5,600 processing units of recyclable products, the retraction in exports is due to greater supply abroad, which reduced the demand for Brazilian scrap.

Ferrous scrap companies traditionally sell more than 90% of the volume on the domestic market, only selling abroad the surplus that was not consumed in Brazil to ensure the sector’s survival in times of low local demand. However, after a period of artificially high values in the country, since June, there has been a cut in prices paid by steel mills.

See below the track record of Brazilian Ferrous Scrap exports between January 2021 to May 2022. The data below is from DataLiner.

Exports Ferrous Scrap (HS 7204) | Jan 2021 – May 2022 | WTMT

Source: DataLiner (click here to request a demo)

According to the Latin American Steel Association (Alacero), in 2021, more than 100,000 jobs were created in the regional steel industry, surpassing the number seen before the pandemic (2019), up 8.3% compared to 2020, when 93,000 jobs were lost. The sector in Latin America created 1.3 million jobs, a fundamental factor in the economic recovery after the health crisis.

“Despite the pandemic’s significant impact on job numbers, our sector has once again proved its resilience. In the first year of the pandemic, 18 plants were shut down, and almost 90,000 jobs were lost in our industry. Nonetheless, the steel industry showed rapid indications of healing in 2021, with a 9 percent recovery, which was higher than the 8.1 percent recovery for the remainder of the value chain. Today, for every job created in the steel sector, another indirect employment is created inside this network,” commented Alejandro Wagner, executive director of Alacero.

Source: Monitor Mercantil

To read the full original article, please go to: https://monitormercantil.com.br/exportacoes-de-sucata-ferrosa-tiveram-queda-de-72-em-junho/

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