After approval without restrictions, as previously reported by SteelOrbis, the Brazilian anti-trust body CADE decided to submit to court again its opposition to the sale of Companhia Siderurgica do Pecem (CSP) to ArcelorMittal, in a response to a request by the local steel producer Usiminas.
According to CADE, Usiminas has added new and valuable technical data to the process, requiring further discussion on the sale.
The risks quoted by CADE for the suspension of the sale include the closure of the market, increased costs for the competition and the possibility of sharing “sensible information” about the other steel producers.
Since having closed the slab production of its Cubatão plant in 2016, Usiminas has outsourced part of the slab supplied its rolling operations, including at Cubatão, with the supply from CSP, Ternium and from imports. It is estimated that today CSP responds for 30 percent of the Usiminas requirements of slab.