Mexican steelmaker Grupo Simec said it is confident in Brazil, as the company has just started-up a plant in the city of Pindamonhanga, in the state of Sao Paulo, according to media reports.
Despite the challenges the Brazilian steel sector has been facing, with a sluggish demand for steel and decreased sales in the domestic market, the Mexican steelmaker said it is confident it will gradually gain market share in the competitive segment.
As for steel prices, the company said it doesn't expect, at least in the beginning, to adopt an aggressive pricing policy.
"We won't enter [the Brazilian steel market] with a too aggressive pricing policy in order to gain space," the company's general director for Brazil, Jaime Ramos, told local media.
Simec is already producing rebar and wire rod at its $400 million EAF mill in the city of Pindamonhangaba, according to the Investe SP agency, a Sao Paulo state development agency for the industrial sector.
Simec is said to be focusing in the nation's civil construction segment, as about 90 percent of its output will be dedicated to the production of both rebar and wire rod.
Ramos said the company expects to produce about 25,000-30,000 mt of steel by 2015. The executive added the company expects to produce by August 2016 a monthly output of 30,000 mt.
"We'll start gradually, looking for market niches," the executive said.