Peruvian steelmaker Aceros Arequipa said in a securities exchange commission filing (SVM) it has delayed its Pisco mill expansion for Q1 2021.
The company expected to start up an EAF mill at its Pisco by mid-2020, as reported by SteelOrbis in February 2019. The Pisco EAF mill will have a 1.2 million mt/year crude steel capacity.
Currently, the Pisco mill has an 850,000 mt/year billet capacity. The billet equipment is currently halted, and it may restart when domestic demand improves, the company said. With the new EAF at its Pisco mill, and once the existing billet rolling mill resumes, Aceros Arequipa will have a combined 2.1 million mt/year billet capacity, the company said.
Aceros Arequipa plans to export billet regionally in Latin America, to countries like Brazil, Mexico, and to the US and Canada as well.
In November 2018, Aceros Arequipa signed a $180 million loan with local Banco de Credito del Peru (BCP) to fund the mill. The $180 million loan was divided into two leasing contracts, one for $101.7 million, to fund civil construction works, and another credit line of $78.2 million. The combined cost for the Pisco EAF mill was $207 million, the company said.