Shipments of finished steel products within Brazil totaled 18.2 million mt in 2015, 16.1% lower than in 2014, data from the national steel institute Aco Brasil showed Monday.
Apparent steel consumption plunged 16.7% from 2014 to 21.3 million mt.
Finished steel product imports fell 19.3% on the year in 2015 to 3.2 million mt.
Crude steel output last year totaled 33.24 million mt, down 1.9% from the previous year.
On the export front, Brazil managed an increase of 40.3% compared with 2014 to 13.7 million mt of steel products.
Despite the strong growth in volume, the value of exports dropped 3.3% year on year to $6.6 billion FOB.
"This result is due mainly to 'intra-company' operations to supply semi-finished plants in Europe and the US, and also because of the sector's emergency measures to prevent a further fall in capacity utilization caused by the poor performance of the domestic market," Aco Brasil said.
In December alone, shipments within the domestic market were 1.1 million mt, or down 26.2% on the year.
Apparent consumption over the same period fell 28.2% to 1.2 million mt, and imports dropped 46.1% to 115,000 mt.
