CVRD to form joint venture steel plants in Brazil
Brazilian mining giant Companhia
Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD) and
US steel producer
Nucor Corp's joint venture
pig iron plant will reportedly come on stream in October 2005.
The plant in Maraba in
Brazil's northern Para state is part of a joint venture worth $80 million between the two companies.
Moreover, CVRD will build a steel complex in
Brazil in partnership with German steel producer ThyssenKrupp. $2.2 billion is planned to be invested in the steel complex.
Sources report that the two companies signed a memorandum of understanding with the Rio de Janeiro state government to build the steel complex. The two companies will build a 4 million-ton steel
slab plant near the Rio de Janeiro state port of Sepetiba.
Production at the planned plant is scheduled to start in 2008.
CVRD officials stated that they try to encourage foreign investors, foreign steel producers and Brazilian steel producers to invest in
Brazil in order to increase steel
production in the country.