This BN Americas report tells a sorry tale of pan-regional slowdown in steelmaking activity. Here's the chart.
According to ILAFA (the respected LatAm steel people) crude steel output dropped by a regional aggregate of 40% to 10.1 million metric tonnes (MMT). Brazil (5MMT) and Mexico (2.4MMT) are the big players in the sector and between them made up 7.4MMT of that reduced total. Third place now taken by Venezuela at 1.06MMT. Argentina is now fourth, dropping from 1.37MMT to 798,000MT in the quarter.FWIW, primary iron and hot rolled productions are just as nasty. Check that link to find out.
As for that Venezuelan production hike, it's interesting that steel production went up but that doesn't necessarily mean they found someone to buy it. However it is a graphic illustration of a the difference in economic model used by Hugolandia. But Venezuela aside, steel prodution numbers over the whole region really ram home the fact that no country escapes this mess. Somebody tell that dumbass Carranza, please.