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Brazil’s Gerdau Group plans to invest US$524 million in a new steel mill in Pérez, Argentina, that will quadruple the steel production there by its Argentina business, Sipar Gerdau.
Business News Americas reports that Gerdau CEO Gerdau Johannpeter made the announcement in a recent meeting with Argentine President Cristina Fernández. The new Sipar Gerdau plant will increase the group’s steel production in Argentina to 1.1 million metric tons, it said, adding that construction is set to begin in November with the first phase of the project scheduled for completion in 2011. At that point, it said, the Sipar plant should be annually producing some 650,000 mt of crude steel and 710,000 mt of long products, which includes shapes, wire rod, wire, concrete reinforcing bar and more. Those investments are projected to cost US$310 million. The second project phase is scheduled for completion by 2016, it said.
“Sipar Gerdau’s production is intended to meet the growing demand in the Argentinean market,” said Luis Pecora Nova, Sipar Gerdau. “These new investments will further prepare the company to respond especially to the needs of the construction and metal-mechanic industries.”
The release described Sipar Gerdau as one of the major suppliers of finished long products for the construction and metal mechanic industries in Argentina. It noted that the company operates a mill in Pérez, in the province of Santa Fé, where it has 450 employees and an annual installed capacity to roll 260,000 mt. |
