Steelmaker Gerdau will halt operations for 60 days at blast furnace No1 at its Ouro Branco mill in the south-eastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, starting in early June 2019, the company said on Thursday February 21.
The company does not expect the stoppage to affect sales volumes because it is already building up the inventory necessary to continue regular supplies to customers, chief executive officer Gustavo Werneck said during a conference call to discuss the company's financial results for 2018.The steelmaker plans to invest 2.22 billion Reais ($596.27 million) in 2019, after reporting capital expenditures of 1.2 billion Reais in 2018. Because Ouro Branco is the company's largest mill, 441 million Reais of this money will be spent on maintenance at that plant.Gerdau also expects investments of 2.41 billion Reais in 2020, with 562 million Reais going to Ouro Branco, and that these figures will rise to 2.45 billion Reais and 593 million Reais, respectively, in the subsequent year.Reforms to modernize the Ouro Branco unit will contiune gradually...