US-based Harsco Environmental, a global provider of environmental solutions and services for the steel and metal industries, announced it has signed a seven-year service contract with the Mexican unit of the Brazilian steel giant Gerdau for slag management and scrap processing services for Gerdau’s plant in Sahagún.
“Harsco Environmental has a collaborative history with Gerdau, including five decades in Brazil. This contract is an inaugural agreement between Harsco Environmental and Gerdau within Mexico,” the Brazilian informed the stock market.
“Harsco Environmental's contract will deliver comprehensive services, such as slag pot carrying, metal recovery, and slag processing, to Gerdau's site in Sahagun,” the company said.
Ciudad Hidalgo is 78 miles northeast of Mexico City, the country 's largest consumer market. In that plant Gerdau produces rebar and commercial profiles.
Gerdau's operations in Mexico are together with its minority partner Corsa in the joint company Gerdau Corsa, of which the Brazilian company owns the control package. 50 miles west of Ciudad Sahagún, they have another plant in Tultitlán and 15 miles from there they have another plant in Tlalnepantla, both in the State of Mexico.
The contract with Harsco is only for the Ciudad Sahagún plant. In Mexico, Gerdau produces billet, rebar, commercial profiles and structural profiles.
According to Gerdau, 93 percent of the steel produced in Mexico is from scrap. Data from the World Steel Association places Mexico as the fourteenth largest steel producer in the world.
Although Mexico is a steel deficit country, in the last 30 years, the balance of the steel trade balance is negative for Mexico.
The contract with Gerdau comes eight months after Harsco renewed three-year contracts with companies in the Mexican unit of Luxembourg-based steelmaker Ternium. It was an $88 million contract.