Brazil slab margins hover near all-time highs

摘要

Brazilian slab exporters are enjoying their strongest margins in years, despite a steep steelmaking raw material cost inflation, with record-high finished steel prices in the United States supporting demand amid Section 232 quotas. Last month, the spread between Fastmarkets’ price assessment for steel slab export, fob main port Brazil and the price for a basket of raw materials reached its widest since the slab price’s inception in early July 2017. This occurred just 13 months after the spread reached its narrowest.