The growth in Brazil's apparent steel consumption is poised to lose some steam by the end of 2021 amid a slower pace of import activity, although real demand shows very few signs of weakening, market participants have told Fastmarkets.
The country is close to setting new record-high import volumes this year due to a surge in interest for foreign material and increased needs for third-party semi-finished products. After
inventories began to pile up at ports, and vessel queues got larger, new deals became less common.
But real demand was still higher year-on-year, or at least showed no significant drop, and that growth appeared to be sustainable, according to steelmakers association Instituto A??o Brasil.
This scenario was nonetheless holding back domestic steel prices, despite foreign exchange rates having opened up an window for price rises in recent weeks.
Fastmarkets' most recent price assessment for
steel hot-rolled coil, import, cfr main ports South America, was $960-1,000 per tonne on October 29, down on the top end of the range from $960-1,080 per tonne a week before and lower than $1,020-1,085 per tonne on October 15.
A loss...