Techint Plans up to $15bn Rio Pipe Plant

Global pipemaker Techint plans to build a multiple part steel complex in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Joaquim Levy, the state’s finance minister, tells LatinFinance. Levy, who has been speaking with Techint CEO Paolo Rocca, says the Argentina-based firm is eager to invest in Brazil. The cost of the plant is estimated at least $10bn, and as much as $15bn. The site of the planned facility, which will produce among other things steel pipes for oil and gas transmission to be used by Petrobras, is on a plot of land belonging to Eike Batista, where the resources magnate is planning to build a port. “The property has got a beachfront that is the length of Manhattan,” says Levy of the plot. Batista’s MPX will also be building a 6,000MW power generation facility in the area to service several of new industrial complexes, as well as the southeastern region of Brazil. Techint recently secured a cash windfall from the nationalization of Sidor in Venezuela.