The Brazilian steel giant Gerdau informed its shareholders that it has already approved a capital expenditure (CapEx) of more than $1.0 billion for new investment projects for the coming years.
At the recent Gerdau Investor Day 2024, the companies Metalúrgica Gerdau, holding company of the steel company Gerdau, reported that the approved strategic CapEx is for the equivalent of $1.68 billion, of which $621 million have already been invested and $1.06 billion is the “revised projection for the coming years” (until 2027).
With a capacity of 600,000 mt, it will be the company's second largest, surpassed only by the one located in the border city of Monroe, Michigan, and larger than the SBQ plants it has in Brazil.
“Gerdau announces to its shareholders and the general market that it will initiate a feasibility analysis for a potential investment for the construction of a greenfield unit in Mexico, dedicated to the production of special steels (SQB), with an estimated capacity of 600 thousand tons per year,” the company reported last May.
In the United States, Gerdau has three plants, the largest of which is located in Monroe with 730,000 mt, the one located in Fort Smith, Arkansas is 500,000 mt and the one in Jackson, Michigan is 280,000 mt.
In Brazil, they have three in the cities of Charqueadas, Pindamonhangaba and Mogi das Cruzes with a production capacity of 430,000 mt, 530,000 mt and 280,000 mt, respectively.
The SQB plant will be the first in Mexico, a country where it operates three plants with a production capacity of 1.5 million mt of raw steel and a capacity of 1.35 million mt of rolled products. With metal scrap it produces billets, rods, commercial and structural profiles.
According to some experts, it was thought that the decision to open the plant in Mexico would be announced at Investor Day 2024. The date of the announcement is unknown at this time.