South American slump

The South American steel industry has not escaped the global economic crisis. Demand for crude steel and steel products has fallen sharply in tandem with the global manufacturing slump and the cooling of China‘s once red-hot economy. After years of growth, Latin America╒s crude steel production was flat at 67.2 million metric tons in 2008, compared to 2007, according to the Latin American Iron and Steel Institute. The region managed to increase steel exports to China by 9 percent to 835,000 metric tons last year, but fourth-quarter results by major South American producers such as Gerdau show a dramatic market deterioration. Steel production in Chile, Colombia and Venezuela fell last year, and Brazilian ferroalloy exports dropped 51 percent to $88.9 million in December compared to a year earlier.