ThyssenKrupp-owned slab producer Companhia Siderurgica do Atlantico (CSA) received on Thursday the final approval from a Rio de Janeiro state environment authority to formally operate under a definite license.
According to a decision published at the Rio de Janeiro state official gazette, local environmental authority Ceca granted CSA an operating license so the steelmaker can produce slabs and operate a thermoelectric plant in the industrial district of Santa Cruz city, in the state of Rio de Janeiro.
According to Ceca, CSA has a 5 million mt/year slab capacity. The operating license is effective immediately, the decision said.
The mill had been running on provisional licenses for the past few years, and faced a series of lawsuits from prosecutors. A few weeks ago, a Rio de Janeiro state court issued a ruling provisionally preventing CSA from receiving the operating license until an injunction filed by prosecutors was analyzed. Then, the same court stepped back in its decision and allowed state authorities to grand the steelmaker a final license.
The prosecutors’ injunction demanded new analysis about the impact of the mill’s activities on the environment, health, security and welfare of Santa Cruz and neighboring populations.