Chapter 2 Central and South America

摘要

Central and South America's consumption of steel plate remained stable at 1.3m tonnes in Q2 2012. However in Brazil, demand for steel plate was affected by the economic slowdown and dropped by 3.6% quarter-on-quarter and 12.5% year-on-year to 822,000 tonnes this quarter. We expect C&S America to witness steadier growth from the second half of 2012. Regional GDP and IP are set to grow by 3.2% and 0.4% respectively in 2012. Apparent consumption of steel plate will increase by 6.0% over the whole of 2012.