Brazilian steel producer Gerdau announced Thursday its plans to invest US$524 million in its Argentine unit to increase production capacity.
Gerdau's Argentine unit, Gerdau Sipar, will begin producing raw steel and will quadruple its output capacity of laminated products over the next eight years.
The first phase of the investment, slated for completion by 2011, will add 650,000 mt of raw steel capacity and 710,000 mt of laminated steel, while the final phase of the investment will raise production capacity to 1.1 million mt of raw steel and 1.1 million mt of laminated products by 2016.