Brazil semi-finished steel exporters downplay US quota cuts

摘要

Brazilian steel slab exporters do not see financial or operational impacts following the US decision to lower its import quota for shipments of semi-finished steel from Brazil from 350,000 mt to 60,000 mt for the remainder of 2020. The former volume will be allowed to go into US customs warehouses, but only 60,000 mt will be permitted to enter the US market. The remainder will have to wait until January 2021. Any financial impact derived from the recent decision would be on the purchaser, sources on the supply side said. According to US preliminary import data, a total of 3.14 million mt of semi-finished product from Brazil had entered the country until July, with another 415,000 mt licensed in July, filling the annual quota volume of 3.5 million mt.