Speaking to reporters at the Alacero conference this week, executives discussed the lack of flat steel production in Chile.
Asked by reporters about plant shutdowns, Martin Barardi, Alacero’s president, said “only civil construction products are made there,” referring to the now non-existent flat steel industry in the country.
Last year, the country’s major steel company, Companía de Acero del Pacifico (CAP), decided to focus on long steel production as a result of a “strong increase of flat steel imports” into the country.
At that time, the company told media that flat steel production was “increasingly unprofitable.”