Brazil`s flat steel shipments abroad decreased year-on-year in June, Kallanish learns from the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (Mdic).

During the first six months, Brazilian flat steel exports amounted to 204,910 tonnes, 30,700t or -13% less than in the corresponding period of 2018 and -9.4% down on May.

During the January-June period, flat steel shipments abroad reached 1,244,139t, adown by -2.4% on-year. The value of these exports also fell in the period to $838.3 million, or -9.7% lower y-o-y. The average flat product export value during the first half of 2019 was $674/tonne fob, -7.4% less y-o-y.

The main destination for Brazilian flat steel shipments to the end of June was the United States, which took 18% of overall business. Exports to Argentina, Turkey and Portugal meanwhile had shares of 14%, 7.6% and 7.5%, respectively.

Brazil’s exports of semi-finished products also fell by -31.4% y-o-y in June to 718,710t and were -13.3% lower than the total of 829,450t in May. Year-to-date, these were just -0.8% less than in H1 2018 at 4.39 million tonnes. Over the January-June period the value of semis shipments reached $2.26 billion, -3.2% lower y-o-y. According to Mdic data, the average semi-finished products' export value during the period was $514/t fob, or -2.7% down on that in 2018.

During the first half, the main destination for Brazilian semi-finished product exports was the US, which took a 70% share of overall sales. This was followed by Mexico and Germany with a share of 4.9% and 3.9%, respectively.