BRAZIL

The Gerdau Group's activities in Brazil are focused on three segments: long steel, specialty steel, and slabs, blooms and billets.

Long steel is produced in mills located in the northeastern, southeastern and southern regions of Brazil. Specialty steel products, the Group's highest value-added items, are manufactured by Gerdau Aços Finos Piratini, located in the city of Charqueadas, state of Rio Grande do Sul. The Ouro Branco mill, state of Minas Gerais, is responsible for the production of slabs, blooms, billets, structural shapes and wire rod.


Long steel

Long steel output nearly reached the maximum installed capacity in Brazil due to increasing demands for exports. In 2003, Gerdau mills produced 11% more, with significant gains in terms of cost and quality. Worthy of note are the 9% increase in productivity in terms of ton/man/year and the significant increase in the utilization level of the rolling mills.


Specialty steel

Our performance in the segment of specialty steel, which is produced primarily for the automotive industry, also improved during the year: a 20% growth in productivity (ton/man/year) and a 12% growth in the utilization rate of rolling mills were recorded.

In an environment of expanding demand, the manufacture of rolled and forged products grew 15%, while billet output grew 21%.


Gerdau Açominas - Ouro Branco

In 2003, the Ouro Branco mill surpassed its annual installed capacity of three million metric tons of liquid steel and presented a performance that was 22.9% over that of the previous year. To meet the goal of diversifying and offering higher value-added products, 70% of the runs were for killed steel products destined for heavy forging and the automotive industry, profile slabs and billets for cold heading applications.

In continuing the verticalization process at this unit, the structural shape rolling mill – inaugurated in 2002 – produced the volumes planned for the year and developed all scheduled products in record time. The installation of the wire rod rolling mill was right on schedule, with production being initiated in January 2004. The mill is expected to reach an output of 550,000 metric tons per year during 2004.

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