OREANDA-NEWS. From January to December, Gerdau invested BRL 3.1 billion in Capex in its operations worldwide. One of its biggest investments was to start the production of flat steel in Brazil, and the rolling mill for hot rolled coils has already been in the testing phase since December 2012. This equipment, whose capacity is 800,000 metric tons per year, will start its operation in the first quarter of 2013.

In the area of mining, investments were continued in order to reach an annual installed capacity of 11.5 million tons in 2013. Moreover, Gerdau has already made the first shipments of iron ore to the international market, totaling 325,000 metric tons.

Gerdau has started the operation of a blast furnace in India, a large potential market, with an annual installed capacity of 350,000 metric tons, the power generation plant that will use blast furnace gas, sintering, the melt shop, and the new special steel rolling mill with an annual installed capacity of 300,000 metric tons. Two new inspection lines of bars will start operating in 2013. In 2014, the implementation of a coking plant is already in the plans with an annual capacity of 200,000 metric tons and integrated into it is a power generation plant.

The Company is being more selective in the assessment of its future investment projects considering the large volume of investments made in 2012, which had been previously scheduled, and the uncertainties about the global economic market. Therefore, for the period 2013-2017, BRL 8.5 billion are scheduled in investments in its industrial units, considering both the steel and mining activities.