Brazil fights back
By Staff -- Purchasing, 11/5/1998
Instituto Brasileira de Siderurgica (IBS), the national steel producers association, has blasted unfair-trade petitions filed by U.S. steelmakers demanding dumping duties on hot-rolled carbon steel products from Brazil. Recent data shows that Russia and Japan were responsible for 56% of U.S. hot-rolled imports during first-half 1998 while Brazilian product represented less than 5% of the market. Brazilian steelmakers argue that huge amounts of imported Russian and Asian hot-rolled steel--not Brazilian steel--has created downward pressure on prices for U.S.-bound hot-rolled imports.Paulo Renato Marques, market relations manager for Cia Siderurgica Nacional, one of four Brazilian mills targeted by the trade petitions, says "it's absurd and inadmissible that the U.S. steelmakers lump Brazil in the same bag as the others since Brazil has not sizably increased its small amount of U.S.-bound hot-rolled exports and has only offered export prices that are competitive with those of countries like Russia which are selling huge and growing amounts of hot-roll to the U.S."
Breno Milton, investor relations manager at Usinas Siderurgicas de Minas Gerais (Usiminas), another big mill targeted by the trade petitions, contends "it was the Asian economic crisis, which then spread to Russia, which has caused massive amounts of Russian, Japanese, and Korean steel to enter the U.S."
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