Brazil's Gerdau invests over US$100mn to serve electromobility demand

Brazilian steelmaker Gerdau invested 700mn reais (US$132mn) to align its production processes with expected growing demand for electric vehicles.

"Our objective when investing in our special steel plants is to increase productivity and meet the needs and growing demand of our customers, under a plan to fully modernize operations by 2025," Rubens Pereira (pictured), vice president of Gerdau's specialty steel division in Brazil told BNamericas.

"The new casting at the Pindamonhangaba plant, which is already in operation, is in line with the concept of industry 4.0. It will increase the quality and competitiveness of our operations in this segment as part of a new cycle of sustainable growth for Gerdau," he added.

"We have an optimistic view of the Brazilian automotive sector in general, which should, in the medium and long term, recover its production levels. In addition, I emphasize that the unit's technological update is in line with the future perspectives of increasing the matrix of electric and hybrid vehicles in Brazil," Pereira said.

He underlined the production of electric and hybrid vehicles does not just include light vehicles. "We also closely follow the evolution of the heavy vehicle and agricultural machinery segments, which consume special steels in their production cycle."