Latin American steel imports from China drop sharply during Jan-Feb

By Carolina Curiel (ScrapMonster Author)

April 07, 2016 07:53:58 AM

SAO PAULO (Scrap Monster): The imports of Chinese finished steel by the Latin American countries dropped sharply by 35% during the first two months of the current year. This is in accordance with the latest statistics released by the Latin American Iron and Steel Institute (ALACERO).

The imports totaled 1.2 million tons during Jan –Feb ‘16, down by nearly 35% year-on-year. The finished steel imports from China totaled 1.0 million tons during this period. Also, the country shipped 143 thousand tons of steel-derivative products during the two-month period. The Chinese finished steel exports had totaled 1.7 million tons during the corresponding two-month period last year, whereas those of steel-derivative products had totaled 165 thousand tons during Jan-Feb ’15.

Among import destinations, Central America was the largest importer of Chinese finished steel with total imports of 251,000 tons, accounting for almost 21% of the region’s total imports from China. In second place was Chile with imports of 191,000 tons, accounting for 16% share of total Latin American finished steel imports. Imports by Peru totaled 151,000 tons, accounting for 13% import share.

The countries that reported jump in imports of Chinese steel during the two-month period were Cuba (+187%), Costa Rica (+40%), Paraguay (+19%) and Colombia (+12%). On the other hand, imports of Chinese steel products by Argentina dropped significantly by 89% during Jan-Feb ’16 when compared with the year before. The other countries to report major drop in steel imports were Brazil (-69%), Mexico (-59%) and Ecuador (-50%).

The Latin American finished steel imports from China had totaled 9.4 million tons during the entire year 2015. The imports were up marginally by 1% when matched with the previous year. The total finished steel exports from China had amounted to 109.6 million tons. Latin American imports had accounted for 8.6% of the total Chinese exports.