Italian company Gruppo Beltrame may invest more than US$400 million to build a two million mt per year steel plant in Argentina, announced local news sources this week. The decision lies in the hands of the company's shareholders, who will make a decision in the coming days.
A representative of the Gruppo Beltrame, which is already constructing its first steel mill in Argentina, told local press that the company believes the region will be a strategic place for steel activity in the near future.
If the company decides to go ahead with its investment plans for the new facility, the construction of the plant will begin this year in the city of Puerto Madryn in Argentina's Chubut province, with completion slated for early 2010. The facility is planned to average about 1.5 million mt of steel per year and process 2.2 million mt of steel a year.
Gruppo Beltrame, one of Europe's largest steel firms, is currently constructing a plate mill in the province of Santa Fe. The construction began back in August 2008 and is to be completed in January of 2010.