André Johannpeter, executive vice-chairman of Brazilian steel producer Gerdau S.A., has been elected as the new chairman of the World Steel Association (worldsteel) for a one-year period, at the 52nd annual worldsteel meeting held in Tokyo. He replaces Kosei Shindo, president of Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation (NSSMC), who will now serve as vice-chairman of the association in the coming 12 months, together with Yu Yong, chairman of Chinese steel producer HBIS Group. Johannpeter stated during the annual meeting that as new chairman he would continue worldsteel’s work on tackling global excess capacity of steel, especially with the scope of the G-20.
Worldsteel has also welcomed two new associate members (steel companies producing less than 1.8 million mt per year) to the association: Sheffield, UK-based Liberty Speciality Steel represented by Jonathan Bolton, and Lahore, Pakistan-based Mughal Iron and Steel Industries Ltd represented by Fahad Javaid.