SAO PAULO - Brazilian conglomerate Cosan said on Friday it had acquired a 4.9% stake in Vale and intends to increase its bet in the mining company.

Hot-rolled coil advanced 2.3%, while stainless steel gained 0.3%.

The company held guidance on FFI’s annual operating expenditure unchanged at $500 million to $600 million.

Vale added in a securities filing, however, that no decision has been reached yet on any potential transaction.

It was a 9.2% decrease from the 2,485,000 permit tons recorded in August and a 10.1% decrease from the August final imports total of 2,510,000.

The report highlights that, in 2021, shipments from domestic steel mills measured 94.7 million net tons (NT), up 16.9 percent from the previous year.

In the week ending on October 1, 2022, domestic raw steel production was 1,700,000 net tons while the capability utilization rate was 77.1 percent.

This volume is only below what was recorded in September 2020, when Brazil exported 37.47 million tonnes for the month.