News

The CEO of ArcelorMittal Long Carbon South and Central Americas, Paulo Geraldo de Sousa, announced on Tuesday, March 18 in Belo Horizonte, the duplication of ArcelorMittal Monlevade, one of the main ArcelorMittal Group units in the country, located in João Monlevade (MG). The executive detailed the project during a meeting with the governor of Minas Gerais, Aécio Neves, at the Palácio da Liberdade, where the main executives from the Long Carbon Business Area and the president of ArcelorMittal Brasil, José Armando Campos were also present.
The company will invest around US$ 1 billion in the integrated plant of ArcelorMittal Monlevade, which will have its capacity doubled to 2.4 million tons of crude steel a year. Besides the construction of a new blast furnace with a capacity for 1.5 million tons/year of pig iron, the expansion project involves the installation of a new sinter plant which will increase the current production of 1.7 million tons a year to 5.7 million tons a year; of a new steel mill with a production capacity of 2.4 million billets a year - twice as much the current capacity; and of a new rolling mill for an additional production of 850,000 tons of wire rod, increasing the nominal capacity to 2 million a year.  "The ArcelorMittal Monlevade expansion will increase the annual tax collection in R$ 128 million as of 2011", said Paulo Geraldo. According to the governor Aécio Neves," the investment is extremely important and it will be welcome by the government of Minas Gerais".
The constructions will begin this month, and the dead line is 27 months from now. During the work peak around 6,000 people will be employed. With the expansion there will be 400 new direct jobs in Monlevade unit which today has 1,200 direct employees.
The duplication of Monlevade is part of an ArcelorMittal program which foresees a total investment of US$ 5 billion in Brazil in the next five years, including investments in the plants maintenance.
To respond to the iron ore supply, the Andrade Mine, leased to Vale and responsible for 100% of the steelmaking intake supply, will expand its production of 1.5 million current tons to 5.6 million tons a year.