Luxembourg-based steelmaker ArcelorMittal has decided to resume its galvanizing capacity expansion project in southern Brazil in response to fast-growing demand in the country, the company stated in its fourth-quarter earnings report published on Thursday February 11.
The project aims to increase cold-rolling and galvanizing capacity by 700,000 tonnes per year at ArcelorMittal's Vega do Sul unit in the state of Santa Catarina with a $350-million investment,
the steelmaker said. Operations are now expected to start up in the fourth quarter of 2023.
ArcelorMittal Brasil chief executive officer Benjamin Baptista had told Fastmarkets in August 2019 that
Vega's expansion was scheduled to come online between late 2021 and early 2022.
This capacity expansion involves the construction of a new continuous annealing line and a continuous galvanizing (CGL) combiline. A further increase could be done via a coating line to add 100,000 tpy in capacity, to serve both the appliance and construction industries, according to the company.
Vega's production capacity is currently 950,000 tpy of galvanized steel and 500,000 tpy of cold-rolled coil.
"Upon...