Chilean steel producers CAP Acero and Gerdau Chile have teamed up with the local metalworking industry in order to strengthen the nation’s manufacturing segment, which has also been affected by imports of steel from China.
Following a meeting in Santiago, Chile this week, representatives of the two industries elected the members of the Council for the Development of the Chilean Manufacturing Industry. The group has delivered its first document for the country’s labor minister, Jorge Burgos.
One of the council’s main targets is to increase the share of the local manufacturing industry in the nation’s GDP to 15 percent from a current 11 percent share.
“In the past 20 years in Chile, the manufacturing industry has been declining its share in the nation’s GDP as well as in terms of employment,” the council said in a document, adding that in 1996 the industry accounted for 17 percent of the country’s GDP, and 16 percent of the jobs in the nation.
The council said the imports of steel from China are currently “eroding” the competitiveness of Chile’s manufacturing industry, which in turn, has been affecting the segment’s share in the nation’s GDP.