Luxembourg-based global steel-maker ArcelorMittal’s leadership has warned it may backtrack on some of its (25bn reias) $4.6bn of planned investments in Brazil due to an influx of cheap steel imports and US tariffs, the company’s leader in Brazil, Jorge Oliveira, announced on Tuesday (26 August).
In the past few months, as US President Donald Trump’s tariff onslaught has unfolded, many sectors and economies have been shifting global supply chains. For the steel industry in Brazil, this has meant that exports have rushed in, further accelerating an ongoing trend. Since 2020, steel imports into one of South America’s biggest economies have grown by 200%.
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In the past year, steel imports from China have flooded in. The country’s steel trade association reported a 57% increase in Chinese imports in the first quarter of 2025, and in June, the Brazilian Secretariat of International Trade started an anti-dumping investigation into Brazilian imports of Chinese hot-rolled flat steel.
ArcelorMittal produces around 40% of Brazil’s steel, exporting roughly a third of semi-finished steel products to the US.
Earlier this year, the multinational announced plans to invest $661–696m to expand a lamination facility in Espirito Santo. Oliveira said that whether the company continues to pursue the investment hinges on the influx of imports.
In April 2024, the Brazilian government raised import tariffs for some steel products and imposed quotas for some products, but local providers have complained that it has not been enough to offset the effects of an increased foreign supply.
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By GlobalData“The impact of imports is a reality that runs counter to the investment appetite of any group,” Oliveira has said.
In May, when the Brazilian Government was deciding whether to renew these trade measures, Oliveira underscored the pressures facing local steel production.
“A first effect would be to postpone the project’s start date, and a much worse effect would be to cancel the project. We are at a critical point,” he said, referring to the facility in Espirito Santo.
In late June, Trump announced he would impose 50% tariffs on Brazilian exports to the US. These were mainly driven by political revenge for the trial of ex-Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has long been Trump’s ally.
