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The overwhelming flow of Chinese steel exports remains the single largest issue the Latin American steel industry faces, delegates at the 2025 Alacero Summit in Cartagena, Colombia said, emphasizing the region’s urgent need for regionalization and to end the dependence on imported material.
“The steel industry in Latin America is going through one of the most critical moments in its recent history. Over the past 15 years, exports of finished and semi-finished steel from China to the region have increased by 233%, rising from four million tonnes in 2010 to 14.1 million tonnes in 2024,” Jorge Luiz Ribeiro Olivera, president of Latin American Steel Association (Alacero), said during the event’s opening on Tuesday November 11. “There’s no strong country without a strong industry.”
Intensifying sentiment toward China and other Asian steel exports dominated the discussion at the summit, with Latin steel producers increasingly blame China for the suffering in the Latin steel industry amid rising import volumes from the Asian giant, pressure on local mills deepens, leading to closures, weaker pricing, and the loss of manufacturing jobs.
Industry representatives say the region’s manufacturing base is at risk from growing inflows of low-priced Chinese steel and limited government support for local production. Executives from several Latin American companies urged authorities to adopt regional strategies to ensure fair trade conditions and safeguard employment in the sector.
“[Latin America] is not afraid of competition,” Olivera said, “[but] the game is uneven.”
Chinese government steel subsidies and grants allow imported material to flood the market, delegates explained, leaving domestic producers unable to compete.
The impacts of Chinese dumping “spread down the value chain,” Anthony de Carvalho, OECD senior economist and head of the steel unit said, adding that the dumping has also lead to an inflow of finished steel-based products.
Attendees at the summit continued to call for more regional and protectionist measures from Latin American governments, echoing previous sentiment from Alacero and other steel associations.
Jorge Guajardo, former Mexican Ambassador to China and partner at the DGA Group, believes that Latin American countries should put truly prohibitive tariffs on products that they already produce internally.
“For what we do not produce, we should encourage its production and perhaps support future projects with pre-announced tariffs,” Guajardo said during a press conference on Wednesday November 12 during the summit.
Other Alacero participants, such as Armando Monteiro, Brazilian politician and former minister of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, believe that regional integration is the most important factor when it comes to protectionism — although he acknowledges that this would take time in Latin American and must be approached as a long-term strategy.
“One of the ways to limit imports is to increase the participation of the regional industry in intraregional trade. To achieve this, we face the challenge of stimulating regional value chains with greater integration among regional industries,” Monteiro told Fastmarkes. “One way to achieve this is through physical integration, improving systemic transport infrastructure and regional logistics.”
Monteiro highlighted is the Bioceanic Corridor, a major infrastructure project that aims to connect the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of South America. The corridor would facilitate the movement of goods across countries such as Brazil, Paraguay and Chile, reducing transport costs and transit times.
But, until structural changes are made in the region, consumers in Latin America might continue to make “price-based” choices, according to Margaret Myers, managing director at the Johns Hopkins Institute for the Americas, China, and the Future of Global Affairs.
Chinese sellers continue to offer steel at below-market levels, prompting producer-country governments to impose new tariffs and anti-dumping measures, while buyer countries keep seeking better prices, sources said.
Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel hot-rolled coil import, cfr main ports South America was $500-530 per tonne on Friday November 7, up by $10 per tonne from $500-520 a week earlier.
Meanwhile, Fastmarkets’ monthly price assessment for steel hot-rolled coil, domestic, monthly, exw Brazil, was 3,500-3,900 Reais ($663-739) per tonne on Friday October 10, widening upward by 1.37% from 3,500-3,800 Reais per tonne a month earlier.
Mexican steel representatives looked to the US as an example of protectionist measures against Chinese steel.
Salvador Quesada, the director of the Mexican Chamber of Iron and Steel Industry (Canacero) said that Mexico understands the US recent measures against imports.
“At the end of the day, this is what the US wants: shut imports down. And this is what we want too,” Quesada told Fastmarkets. “Mexico is doing its part.”
But US tariffs have depressed the Mexican market since they were reinstated.
Year-over-year, finished steel consumption in Mexico was down by 18.9% to 18.97 million tonnes in September, Canacero’s latest monthly report said. Exports to the US made up just 45.8% of Mexican exports in September, down from 77.1% during the same period in 2024, according to Canacero.
“The US steel industry is in a good position overall,” Philip Bell,Steel Manufacturers Association (SMA) president, told Alacero attendees on November 11.
“Markets are stable” Bell said, amid a sweeping tariff regime on steel reimplemented earlier this year by US President Donald Trump.Despite the benefits the 50% Section 232 tariffs have brought to US steel producers, Bell said that there is caution from US market participants.
“These tariffs don’t just affect so-called ‘bad actors’ like China. They also hit major partners such as Mexico and Canada,” the SMA president said.
According to Bell, Latin America invests five times more in the US steel industry than Canada does.
“[The US tariffs] can’t continue like this forever, they can’t remain as they are, because it could create an irreparable risk,” Bell added.
Fastmarkets’ inaugural weekly steel reinforcing bar (rebar), delivered Bajio, Mexico was 13,600-14,000 pesos ($731-752) per tonne on Thursday November 6.Also, Fastmarkets’ price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), delivered Monterrey, Mexico was 13,600-14,200 pesos per tonne on Thursday, widening downward from 13,800-14,200 pesos per tonne in the previous week.Meanwhile, Fastmarkets’ initial weekly steel hot-rolled coil index, delivered Bajio, Mexico was calculated at 15,500 pesos per tonne on Thursday.And Fastmarkets’ assessment of the steel hot-rolled coil index, delivered Monterrey, Mexico was calculated at 12,969.70 pesos per tonne on Thursday, up by 0.20% from 12,943.67 pesos per tonne a week earlier.
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