Gerdau Ameristeel completes North Star acquisition

Gerdau Ameristeel completes North Star acquisition

According to the statement released by Gerdau Ameristeel, the company has acquired several mills from Cargill Incorporated and its subsidiaries. The acquisition includes four long product mills in St. Paul, Minnesota; Wilton, Iowa; Calvert City, Kentucky; and Beaumont, Texas; three wire rod processing facilities in Beaumont, Texas; Carrollton, Texas; and Memphis, Tennessee; and a ball grinding facility in Duluth, Minnesota. These mills will broaden the product mix of Gerdau Ameristeel, as a result the customer base of the company will expand too. As previously reported by SteelOrbis, the deal regarding the takeover of the subject mills was signed back on September 10, 2004. For the subject mills, Gerdau Ameristeel paid $266 million and assumed around $12 million of the debt. The four long product mills have an annual production capacity of 2 million tons, whereas the four downstream product manufacturing facilities have an annual production capacity of 300'000 tons.