Chile might be the world’s largest copper producer. Still, Aceros AZA Director of Metallic Purchases Juan Enrique Greibe says increasing steel consumption is turning the spotlight on the country’s ferrous sector.
Chile is the world’s largest copper producer. Its 5.2 million metric tons of production last year top all other countries. A lesser-known fact, however, is that Chile also is the fifth-largest steel producer in Latin America behind Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Colombia, producing around 1.3 million metric tons per year.
In conversation with Ivan Lechuga, Davis Index’s ferrous analyst, Juan Enrique Greibe, director of metallic purchases at Aceros AZA, based in Santigo, Chile, says his company is betting on the growing need for steel in the country, especially given that the world’s largest copper producer is a net exporter of ferrous.
“Today, the industry is not only tasked with proving that circular economies, in particular recycling, is a fundamental business model for the world, but must also promote improvements within the sector, from segregation at the production stages to traceability of origin to actual steelmaking,” he says.
Read more about Chile’s increasing focus on the ferrous market in this Davis Index article that was first published in the Fall 2023 Scrap Recycling issue of the Recycling Today magazine.