Sales of steel increases up to 20% in distribution
Gazeta Mercantil 04/09/2009
The sales of flat steel made through distributors presented recovery in March, according to preliminary data of the National Institute of Steel Distributors (Inda). According to the president of the entity, Carlos Loureiro, between 15% and 20% more steel products were sold last month compared to the previous year. "Nonetheless, the first quarter will register a fall of nearly 24% compared to the first quarter of 2008", he said. According to the officer, in spite of the recovery, the scenario is still uncertain, specially for the second half of the year, when the end of the reduction in the IPI for cars is expected.
The officer emphasized that, irrespective of the greater sales in March, the level of the stocks in the sector continues above the historical average. "We have stocks 3.2 times the monthly agenda, whereas the historical average is 2.5 times". Even though it has already reduced a lot in relation to December, when there was a peak of 6.4, he said. In the first three months of last year, the distributors sold 958.2 thousand tons of steel, a historical volume and 24.6% above the volume registered in 2007. The sales of the distributors, which registered growth rates above 20% in the first half of last year, showed a decline of 15% in October, 22.1% in November and 34.4% in December. With that, the high in the year reached 12.2%. Since the beginning of this year, the segment has been showing a slight resumption. In January, the sales closed with an increase of 51.5% in relation to the previous month, amounting to 220.4 thousand tons. However, when compared to the same period of 2008, there was a 30.2% fall. In February, there was a new increase of 7.6% compared to January, to 237.2 thousand tons, a volume 22.6% below the same month of 2008. Loureiro explained the resumption in March leveraged by the sales to the car sector, and, particularly, to the sector of car parts. "But the improvement has still not been proportional to the increase of the production of the sector, because systemists are still making adjustments to their stocks". The officer emphasized that other segments have also showed a resumption in the sales, like the white line producers and the building sector.