Local media in Brazil reported Monday that Brazilian miner Vale will invest 1 billion reais ($US573 million) in a rolling mill in Rio de Janeiro State.
Vale has yet to officially announce the investment, but according to the local media, Vale plans to build a rolling mill which will produce plate and sheet from slabs produced on site at Companhia Siderurgica do Atlantico (CSA), a five million mt mill currently being built by Germany's ThyssenKrupp (Vale also has a 27 percent stake in CSA). CSA is slated to open in the first half of 2010.
According to the local report, the rolling mill project is still pending the approval of Vale's board of directors.
Vale has faced increasing pressure from Brazil's President Lula da Silva to invest in the country's domestic steel industry and in late October announced a US$12.9 billion investment plan for 2010, though only about three percent of these funds were allocated for steelmaking projects.