Alacero 2022: Challenges and opportunities in the Latin American steel sector

Thursday, 17 November 2022 02:02:39 (GMT+3)   |   San Diego
       

Alacero, the Latin American Steel Association, held its annual conference Nov. 16-17 in Monterrey, Mexico, bringing together the biggest names in Latin American steel to discuss sustainability and policies in the sector.

In a press release, Alacero offered highlights of the event, including comments from Alejandro Wagner, Executive Director of the Association.

“We are a sector that really bets and contributes to development, generating more than 1,300,000 highly qualified direct and indirect jobs,” said the executive. Our commitment to our communities is also demonstrated in our investment and innovation in technology, in more efficient products and processes, as well as in the health and safety of people and care for the environment. These are the values that define us and guide the event.”

The first panel of the day included Spanish politician and journalist Cayetana Alvares de Toledo to talk about the political and economic situation in Latin America. “We need to analyze the threats and challenges of the moment we have arrived with realism, so we need to talk about positive challenges and initiatives. In education, young people, for example, need to escape relativism and learn how to think and not what to think, they need to develop critical thinking together to highlight what we have in common and unite history with the values of political modernity and industrialization.”

To discuss industry as a driver of inclusive development, the panel included Carlos Elizondo Mayer-Serra, professor at the School of Government and Public Transformation of the Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico City; Andrés Malamud, researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon; and Ricardo Sennes, managing partner of Prospectiva, specialist in political and economic scenarios, formulation and implementation of public policies. “There are risks and opportunities and this is key to understanding the Latin American region, as we have a great combination of business generation with institutional and political challenges. For example, there has been an increase in the generation of jobs in the sector, but the remuneration of these new jobs is very low,” said Sennes.

Additionally, Lucas Salvatore, CEO of Idero and Ricardo Mateus, CEO of Brasil ao Cubo, discussed megatrends in the civil construction industry. “We observe a generational change with greater interest in the environment and sustainability. Therefore, our solution came to integrate the industry with architecture for buildings with a triple impact: social inclusion, environmental impact and economic development,” said Salvatore. Ricardo, for his part, highlighted the performance of Brasil ao Cubo in the sector of scale and efficiency in civil construction in terms of achieving the internationalization of the company in Mexico.

Later, José Francisco Garza Rodríguez, CEO of General Motors, and Polo Cedillo, CEO of Grupo Proeza talked about sustainable mobility. “We want to achieve a future with zero emissions, for this we have a portfolio with more efficient vehicles, a base of electric suppliers and commitment to market development. To achieve this, we are changing our manufacturing and production processes,” said José. Polo concluded by saying: “we know that temperatures are rising a lot and this is very harmful to the planet, with that in mind, we need to become Net Zero, how are we going to contribute to this?”

At the end of the first day, the CEO panel began with a speech by Jefferson de Paula, CEO of ArcelorMittal: “The steel industry is one of the most polluting in the world, we have a big challenge, but we have many opportunities with all the sustainable changes. At Arcelor, we see carbon reduction as a big challenge and, therefore, our motto is to produce smart steel for people and the planet.

David Gutiérrez of Deacero highlighted points of innovation and vertical integration of processes and products. “There are 3 initiatives that make a difference in our operations: digitalization and smart information; logistics system for supply chain transportation; product generation, production and processing.”

“Over the last 12 months, how much time have we invested in people - attracting talent, going to schools to interview and meet new people, spending time with young people? For the issue to be resolved, we need to spend, each of us, at least 70% of our time with the people issue. This requires a new perspective on how we act as leaders. We need to learn to delegate and have increasingly horizontal structures in our companies,” continued Gustavo Werneck, CEO of Gerdau. “The value chain must change as a whole and the opportunity is excellent for us, as steel is present in all of them, such as infrastructure, energy and everything else that is being re-evaluated,” emphasized Máximo Vedoya, CEO of Ternium.

The second day of the event focused on sustainability and attracting talent in the sector with featured speaker Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran, correspondent for The Economist. Later, Javier Vaquerizo from Enel Green Power and Eduardo Sattamini, CEO of Engie Energia Brasil discussed the Latin American industry and climate change. The second part of the panel dealt with disruptive technologies with Dr. Alexander Fleischander from Primetals Technologies and Cesar Pulido from Baker Hughes.

The next panel focused on green policies and regional trade configurations, with guests Rodrigo Pupo from MPA Trade Law and Antoine Vagneur-Jones from Bloomberg NEF. The closing panel of the event was on a lighter note with Javier Gómez Santander, journalist and co-producer of the Netflix series, La Casa de Papel.


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