ArcelorMittal Restarts $330 Mln Vega Unit Expansion

(RTTNews) - ArcelorMittal Brazil Wednesday said it is set to resume a $330 million expansion project at ArcelorMittal Vega, flat steel cold rolling, pickling, and galvanizing unit located in Brazilian state of Santa Catarina.

The investment will see the construction of a new continuous annealing line and a third galvanization line for the production of cold rolled and galvanized products. The capacity of the unit is set to increase by 700,000 tons to a total of 2.1 million tons per year. The production is expected to begin in 2021.

The company said the project will increase production for the automotive, construction and home appliances sectors at the Vega unit, allowing the company to meet the market expectations and provide high strength and quality steel products.

Vega's expansion project was on hold since 2011 due to the global crisis which started in 2009 and the Brazilian economic recession and reduction of the domestic market for vehicles.

"We expect the automotive industry to have a substantial increase in the utilization rate. At the outset of the crisis, automakers were practically operating to serve the Brazilian and Argentinian markets only. The crisis forced automakers to develop alternative markets", says Benjamin Baptista Filho, President of ArcelorMittal Brazil and CEO ArcelorMittal Flat Carbon South America.