Brazil’s Vale and South Korea’s Posco and Dongkuk Steel commenced production this weekend a blast furnace at their JV owned steel mill Companhia Siderurgica do Pecem (CSP), located in the Brazilian state of Ceara.
During a ceremony held on Saturday Dongkuk Steel’s vice chairman Chang Sae-wook started up the mill’s blast furnace along with other executives and VIPs, according to a press release from Dongkuk to Brazilian media.
“The CSP steel mill project will play a key role of transforming the company into a global steelmaker,” a Dongkuk Steel spokesperson said.
CSP’s blast furnace is 100 meters tall with 3,800 cubic meters of internal volume. It has the capacity to produce 3.1 million mt of pig iron per year, according to a Brazilian media report.
Out of CSP’s production, Dongkuk Steel will have 1.6 million mt of slab. Dongkuk will import 600,000 mt of the product to South Korea for domestic use, while exporting the remaining volume, according to the South Korean news agency Yonhap News.