Gerdau will resume its 420,00mt per year mill at Paraná in the second half of this year to meet the long steel demand for the civil construction and infrastructure industries in the country.
Gerdau has announced an outlay of BRL 55mn ($10mn) to resume operations at the mill located in the Araucária municipality. The steelmaker said in a statement on Apr 22 that the mill will create 300 new jobs once operational. The mill, which halted operations in 2014, will resume its long steel production gradually, the Brazilian steelmaker noted.
This week, Gerdau announced that it will invest BRL1bn ($179.6mn) to modernize and expand the capacity at its special steel mills in Brazil, driven by higher demand from automotive and machinery industries.
Brazil’s steel demand could increase by 12pc annually in the second quarter of 2021, Cesar Perez, commercial and marketing director of the long steel division at Gerdau Brazil, indicated this week during a recent webinar.
Brazil’s crude steel output rose by 4.1pc to 2.80mn mt in March, from 2.69mn mt in the same month the prior year.