Brazilian slab producer Ternium Brasil is currently operating at 93 percent its capacity, an executive told SteelOrbis this week in the sidelines of Brazil’s Steel Congress, held from August 21-22 in Sao Paulo. The event is promoted by local steel association IABr.
Ternium Brasil, which is a result of Ternium’s acquisition of former ThyssenKrupp’s slab producer Companhia Siderurgica do Atlantico (CSA) in Rio de Janeiro state, has a 5 million mt/year capacity.
“Ternium Brasil is operating well. We’re on a process of continuous improvement. We have good perspectives for Brazil,” the company’s CEO, Marcelo Chara, told SteelOrbis.
“Our goal is to reach 100 percent our capacity. We intend to keep existing investment levels to maintain the competitiveness of our operations,” Chara said in a CEO panel.
Ternium Brasil supplies about a third of its production to the domestic market, and the remaining two thirds are exported to Ternium’s own mills in Mexico and the US, as well as to other markets.
SteelOrbis has learned Ternium Brasil has just approved a BRL 150 million ($36.6 million) investment to its Santa Cruz mill in Rio de Janeiro state.
“It’s been a project we’ve worked for about two years,” Chara said, adding that the company aims to increase the fuel injection rate of the blast furnace to reduce costs.
Chara said out of 60 million mt of semi-finished steel products traded worldwide, 16 percent were made of Brazilian semi-finished steel products.