Gerdau Galvanizes Peru Operations

Gerdau, the Brazilian steelmaker, says it will pour $1.4bn in new funds into its Siderperu plant, located in the northern coastal town of Chimbote. The purpose of the capital injection is to increase the plant’s installed capacity to 1.5m tons by 2011 and 3.0m tons by 2013. That would mark a sixfold increase in production, says the company. “Peru is a strategic country for Peru because it is a market with great potential for further development,” CEO Andre Gerdau Johannpeter says in a statement.