Steel companies to double production
O Estado de S. Paulo - 05/16/2008
The Brazilian steel manufacturers will practically double their productive capacity until 2015, to 80.6 million tons a year, with US$ 45.7 billion (the equivalent to R$ 77.7 billion) in investments. The projection was released yesterday by the Brazilian Steel Institute (IBS) and takes into account projects that are currently underway, approved for execution, or under study. With that, the Country will step two positions up and become the seventh largest international producer. "We are getting into a cycle of sustained growth. The steel industry is ready to stand up to this challenge", said the Executive VP of the institute, Marco Polo Mello Lopes. The projections of the IBS indicate the Brazilian consumption of steel, which reached 22 million tons last year, and may increase to 39.8 billion until 2015. Based on such consumption heating, the IBS has reviewed the growth of the internal sales from 10.7% to 13.1% this year. The estimates take into account a growth of the economy little above 4% a year in the period. According to Lopes, the greatest part of the expansion of the productive capacity is aimed at the domestic market. Taking into account already defined projects an expansion of the current capacity from 41 million tons to 63 million tons until 2015 is guaranteed. Should the projects under study be added, the total reaches 80.6 million. One of the projects underway is the Companhia Siderúrgica do Atlântico - CSA's, a joint venture between the German ThyssenKrupp and Vale. There are also other projects, such as the Chinese Baosteel's, also in partnership with Vale. In both cases, the undertaking is aimed at supplying the foreign market. "They are projects basically aimed at exportation, taking advantage of the decrease of the production in the developed countries and the transference to developing countries", he said. In the first quarter, the heated demand led the steel industries both to reduce the exportation in order to supply the domestic market, and to increase the importation, so as to meet the needs of market niches. In volume, the internal sales of the product grew 22.5%, while the exportation shrank 18.4% and the importation increased 92.9%, nonetheless they represent less than 10% of the market.