Market and product
Brazil's Aluminum Consumption Seen Rising 24.7% In 2010
RIO DE JANEIRO -(Dow Jones)- Brazil's consumption of finished aluminumproducts should reach 1.26 million metric tons in 2010, up 24.7% on 2009, theBrazilian Aluminum Association, or Abal, said Wednesday.
Abal has revised upward an earlier forecast of the year's aluminum consumptionfollowing a positive first-quarter performance, the association said in astatement.
First-quarter consumption reached a record 298,800 tons, up 32.3% from thesame 2009 period and 7.6% from the fourth quarter of 2009, confirming a gradualrecovery in the domestic market, Abal said.
Demand grew most in the first quarter for aluminum foundry products used inautomotive production and sheets used in packaging, according to Abal.
Brazilian producers of aluminum products and alumina and bauxite, which areused to produce aluminium, also boosted their exports in the first quarter, Abalsaid.
Total exports of these products in value terms rose 17.9% from a year earlierto $916 million, the association said.
For the whole of 2010, exports should reach $1 billion, compared to imports ofaluminum products worth $1 billion, Abal said.
(Source: Dow Jones Newswires, By Diana Kinch, )
