OREANDA-NEWS. October 15, 2012. Gerdau is participating this year in a total of 73 research projects in Europe through its Research & Development center located in Spain. More than half of these are the company's exclusive projects. The initiatives aim to improve steel quality, reduce costs in the manufacturing process, and optimize product characteristics.

Gerdau's Research & Development Center in Spain has 76 professionals continuously working on the development of special steels intended for sectors such as automotive, energy, ship building, and civil construction. To give progress to these projects, the Company currently maintains partnerships with 30 companies in the steel industry and with 24 research centers and universities in Europe, which include the Centro Sviluppo Materiali in Italy, the Swedish Institute for Metals Research in Sweden, the University of Frunhofer in Germany, and the University of Technology of Helsinki in Finland.

Gerdau is a leading producer of long steel in the Americas and one of the largest suppliers of special steel in the world. With over 45,000 employees, it has industrial operations in 14 countries - in the Americas, Europe and Asia - which together represent an installed capacity of over 25 million metric tons of steel per year. It is the largest recycler in Latin America and around the world it transforms, each year, millions of metric tons of scrap into steel, reinforcing its commitment to sustainable development in the regions where it operates. With more than 140,000 shareholders, the Company is listed on the stock exchanges of Sao Paulo, New York and Madrid.