Brazil must adopt measures that can allow its steel industry greater participation in the oil and gas sector and to investment partnership programs and projects. So says Sergio Leite de Andrade, president of local steelmakers’ association Instituto Aço Brasil (IAB). He was speaking during the opening ceremony of the Brazilian Steel Conference held in Brasilia on 20 August, monitored by Kallanish.

The IAB welcomes the fact that the government is creating more favourable conditions for competitiveness in the steel industry and its supply chains, it says. This will allow the sector to benefit from new opportunities in the country`s economy, it adds.

“For the revitalisation of the [… steel] industry, we request the adoption of measures that can enable greater participation by the national industry in oil and gas sector projects,” Sergio Leite says. “Past government measures have drastically reduced the share of goods produced in Brazil supplying the oil and gas sector replacing them with imports, as a kind of reverse protectionism,” the executive continues.

According to Leite the outlook for the Brazilian steel sector is not optimistic in the current international scenario. “In addition to trade defence measures taken by most Brazilian steel [… overseas] consumers, South American countries are being targeted for trade diversion actions, as they do not have similar restrictions,” he confirms. The Latin American steel association data showed that China's steel exports to the world fell by -5%, but these to Latin America increased by 28% in 2018, which seems to confirm the trade diversion theory,” Leite adds.