Argentinian steelmaker Acindar, which is owned by ArcelorMittal, is increasing crude steel output to meet the nation’s civil construction growing demand for steel products, the company said.
“Since the beginning of Covid-19, initially due to market reasons and then thanks health restrictions, we had just one active blast furnace at out Villa Constitución mill. In October, we resumed a second line to increase crude steel production,” Everton Negresiolo, CEO at Acindar, told Argentinian news site Ambito.
Acindar is also mulling resuming one of its three rolling mills to increase capacity of finished steel products in an attempt to supply the domestic market.
Despite the challenges of Covid-19, Negresiolo said the company is now “shipping (steel products) at higher levels this year, when compared to 2019 levels.”
“As we understand demand (will increase) in the coming months, we’ve adopted a series of measures to produce more products such as hiring an additional 100 employees to increase production capacity,” he said, although he did not disclose specific steel production figures.
Acindar’s Villa Constitución mini-mill has a 1.1 million mt/year capacity and produces long steel products such as rebar and wire rod.