According to the Brazil Iron and Steel Institute, the country"s crude steel production totaled 1.617 million tons in January, dropped by 45.6 percent compared with the same month of 2008.
Brazil’s demand for crude steel began to fall significantly since November 2008.
However, its rolled steel products increased by 9.9 percent to 1 million tons in January, which suggests that some mills’ transactions have recovered. The Brazilian domestic steel sales hit 950,000 tons, monthly growth of 1.7 percent, but fell by 48.4 percent year-on-year. Source:Yieh.com