Steel consumption in Latin America and Carribean region grew by 3%, as per Alacero

SANTIAGO (Scrap Monster) : The Latin American Steel Association, Alacero in a report released Tuesday stated that the usage of steel by Latin American and Carribean countries has marked a growth of 3% in 2012 in comparison with the previous year.

The net steel consumption by Latin American and Caribbean region touched 64.6 million MT during 2012.The growth in consumption of steel by Chile was 22% higher than 2011.Peru also registered a strong 18% growth in domestic consumption of steel.

A net quantity of 56.4 million tons of finished steel was produced during 2012. The largest producer of finished steel was Brazil with 26.2 million tons, followed by Mexico with 15.9 million tons.

The volume of Latin American crude steel production during 2012 was 66 million tons. Brazil was the primary producer of crude steel with 34.7 million tons, followed by Mexico with 18.1 million tons.

Trade deficit of finished steel products reached 11.6 million tons during 2012, while the imbalance in 2011 had been -8.7 million tons.

In 2012, all Latin American and Caribbean countries -except Argentina and the Dominican Republic- showed finished steel trade deficit. Mexico presented the most significant deficit of 4.1 million tons, as well as other countries like Colombia (-1.8 million tons), Chile (-1.5 million tons) and Peru (-1.4 million tons).