Arcelor Mittal Brazil is set to resume its expansion project at Arcelor Mittal Vega, a flat-steel cold-rolling, pickling and galvanising facility in the state of Santa Catarina.
The company will add a new continuous annealing line and a third galvanising line for the production of cold-rolled and galvanised products.
The capacity of the facility is set to increase by 700,000 tonnes to a total of 2.1 million tonnes per year, and
production is due to begin in 2021.
The project will increase production for the automotive, construction and home-appliance sectors at the Vega unit, allowing the company to meet market expectations and provide high-strength and high-quality steel products.
Vega’s expansion project has been on hold since 2011, due to the global crisis that started in 2009 and the Brazilian economic recession, which caused a reduction in the domestic market for vehicles.
Today, 50% of the production at Arcelor Mittal Vega is aimed at the automotive market.
Benjamin Baptista Filho, president of Arcelor Mittal Brazil, said: “We expect the automotive industry to substantially increase its utilisation rate.
“At the outset of the crisis, automakers were practically operating just to serve the Brazilian and Argentinian markets only.
“The crisis forced them to develop alternative markets. We currently have a market to sell Arcelor Mittal Vega’s products above the existing capacity. We could be selling more.”