Crisis over; steelmakers forge ahead

摘要

September has been a good month for the Latin American - and especially Brazilian -steel industry. This year, ThyssenKrupp CSA produced the first slab at its 5 million tpy mill in Rio de Janeiro state on September7th, Brazil's Independence Day. In 2009, it was in September that Votorantim Siderurgia commissioned its 630,000 tpy long products steel plant in Resende city, also Rio de Janeiro state. This can sound like a forced coincidence, but the facts behind it are clear: since the1980s - a decade of economic problems for most of Latin America - a new integrated steel plant had not been commissioned in Brazil, which is responsible for a little more than half of the region's production. The country is now set to significantly lift that share with Companhia Siderurgica do Atlantico (CSA) and a number of further projects to come on stream in the future.