Panel SA: Construction industry wants to re-import steel to circumvent price

Civil construction companies are moving to re-import steel, as they did throughout the pandemic, to circumvent the rise in input prices on the national market.

Last year, a group of almost 140 developers brought two loads of raw material from Turkey to Brazil. Approximately 40 thousand tons were acquired through the CBIC (Brazilian Chamber of the Construction Industry) together with a construction cooperative in Santa Catarina.

According to José Carlos Martins, president of the entity, the movement pressured Brazilian steelmakers to lower the price of the product at the end of last year, but now they have risen again.

“Steel is very important in the composition of the cost. It is no use going there to fight for an item that is small. Steel is 37% of a house, 73% of a bridge”, says Martins.

The fluctuation of raw materials appears in a survey commissioned by the CBIC to measure the rise in construction costs in different types of works in the state of São Paulo.

In a standard Basic Health Unit, with about 280 square meters, steel accounted for about 29% of the increase in the total price of the project between July 2020 and the same month of 2021, according to the survey.

In the construction of a four-story apartment building, without elevator and with 808 square meters, the raw material represented 34% of the increase on the same basis of comparison.

The survey used as a reference the input costs of Sinapi (National Systems for Research of Costs and Indexes of Civil Construction) and Sicro (System of Reference Costs of Works).

In April, the INCC (National Construction Cost Index) recorded the highest increase for the month since June 2021, of 0.95%, according to the entity.

The rise in price was driven by cement, which also returned to concern the sector this year, followed by elevator, concrete mass, mortar and rebar and steel wire. The cost of labor also rose.

Joana Cunha with Andressa Motter and Paulo Ricardo Martins