The global economic downturn has shown some signs of bottoming out during 1Q 09 with demand for steel from the auto and construction sectors beginning to pick up during 2Q 09. Steel demand in Brazil has shown signs of recovery and given CSN’s concentration on its domestic market, we expect the company's performance to be less severely affected by global economic downturn and projected y-o-y decline in steel demand in 2009. However, according to the Brazilian Steel…

Companhia Siderurgica Nacional's (CSN) revenues fell sharply in 1Q 09, while earnings came in below our estimate due to higher-than-expected costs. Going forward, we expect the slowdown in the global economy to continue to impact revenues and profitability, especially considering that the automotive and construction sectors have been particularly hard hit. In light of these earnings, we expect to lower our target price in our next update report....

Companhia Siderurgica Nacional’s (CSN) 4Q 08 revenues and adjusted1 net income were above our estimates due to significantly higher-than-expected steel prices. However considering the recent decline in metal prices, we expect to cut our estimates and target price in our next update report. Therefore, we maintain our SELL rating for the coming 6-12 months. We will reassess our NYSE common stock rating for CSN in our next full update report....