Gerdau is the largest producer of long

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

in the Americas, with

steel mill A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel. It may be an integrated steel works carrying out all steps of steelmaking from smelting iron ore to rolled product, but may also be a plant where steel semi-finish ...

s in Brazil, Argentina, Canada,

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Peru, United States, Uruguay and Venezuela. Currently, Gerdau has an installed capacity of 26 million

metric tons The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United States ...

of steel per year and offers steel for the

civil construction Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Press 2009 and com ...

, automobile, industrial, agricultural and various sectors. Gerdau is also the world's 30th largest steelmaker. It has 337 industrial and commercial units and more than 30,000 employees across 10 countries.

History

Gerdau was founded by Johannes Heinrich Kaspar Gerdau, also known as

João Gerdau João Gerdau (born Johannes Heinrich Kaspar Gerdau, 1849-1917) was a German-born Brazilian businessman and the founder of the steel company Gerdau. In 1869, Gerdau emigrated to southern Brazil, and in 1901, bought a nail factory in Porto Alegre. ...

, a German migrant who left the port of Hamburg for Rio Grande do Sul, in Brazil, in 1869 in search of new business opportunities. He arrived at the port of Rio Grande, Rio Grande do Sul and, at only 20 years of age, established himself in Colônia de Santo Ângelo (now the town of Agudo), where he invested in trade, transport and the subdivision of land. He moved to the town of Cachoeira do Sul in 1884, where he founded an important General Store. Always seeking new opportunities, João Gerdau moved again, this time to Porto Alegre, with his wife Alvine Gerdau and his three children, Hugo, Walter and Bertha. There he went into industry, buying the Pontas de Paris Nail Factory in 1901 marking the entry into steel industry. Curt Johannpeter's entry into the Gerdau family marked the beginning of a new direction for the company. Born in Germany in 1899, Curt Johannpeter made his career in finance. In 1922 he began to work for the German Transatlantic Bank, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bank. In 1930 he became the branch inspector for Portugal, Spain and Latin America, and in the same year was introduced to the young Helda Gerdau during a trip to Brazil. They married and had four sons: Germano, Klaus, Jorge and Frederico. In 1946, Johannpeter took the wheel of the Gerdau company and oversaw a critical phase in its expansion. See history of Gerdau

Today

Gerdau's core business is to transform steel scrap and

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...

into steel products. Gerdau is a leading producer of long steel in the Americas and one of the largest suppliers of special steel in the world. 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 São Paulo,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and Madrid. Its operations are based on the integrated regional market mill concept by which raw materials are bought from nearby suppliers and products are primarily sold in the same region. This brand of by-product synergy led to the acquisition of Chaparral Steel in 2007, a company which has been noted for creating interchange between head management and workers and deliberately employs a maximum of 1000 people (the size of a village). Gerdau operates through three different processes: * Mini mills *Integrated mills * Direct reduced iron plant

Products and services

Gerdau produces long carbon steel, long special steel, flat steel and forged and cast parts. These products are used in different sectors, such as industry,

metallurgy Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...

, farming and livestock, civil construction, automotive industries, petrochemicals, railway and naval sectors, in addition to orthodontic, medical and food areas. Gerdau is also the main supplier of specialty steel for the international automotive network.

Internationalization of the Gerdau Group

Long before its possibilities of expansion on the Brazilian market were exhausted, Gerdau had established strategies for external expansion, starting at the end of the 1970s. Their fundamental objectives were to conquer the U.S. market. Based on limited international experience managing a mini mill plant in Uruguay for almost a decade, the group first aimed at the North American market for long steel, starting with Canada. Later, after a decade of experience in conditions that were radically different from those existing in Uruguay (the location of its first foreign venture), Gerdau entered the U.S. market. Entry into North America was complemented by other ventures in all of Latin America, from Chile and Argentina to Mexico and the Caribbean. The North American experience, like the Brazilian, demonstrated the strategic necessity to enter new markets such as Europe (with special steels) and Asia (with long steel and final structures of special steel).

Business operations

Gerdau is spread globally across 13 countries with its integrated and semi-integrated steel mills. Apart from steel mills, Gerdau also has downstream processing facilities. Offices: Gerdau has its major offices at Porto Alegre, São Paulo,

Tampa Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough County ...

, Whitby, Polanco, Lima,

Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...

, Bogota, Jackson and Bangalore. Brazil Business Division: Gerdau has two Brazil business divisions divided as Mining Americas and Steel Brazil Special Steel Business Division: Gerdau produces specialty steel especially for the automotive industry through its special steel divisions, Special Steel North America, Special Steel Brazil, and Special Steel India. Latin America Business Division: Gerdau produces most of the long and flat products at Latin America North,

, Mexico, Sizuca ( Venezuela), Latin America South, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Uruguay

Assets

* 58 steel mill factories * 21 downstream operations * 94 fabricated reinforcing steel facilities * 4 flat steel service centers * 80 retail facilities * 32 scrap collection and processing facilities * 4 iron ore extraction areas * 2 solid pig iron production units * 2 private port terminals * 1 Reinforcing Steel Placing Company

Carbon footprint

Gerdau reported Total CO2e emissions (Direct + Indirect) for 31 December 2020 at 11,281 Kt (-667 /-5.6% y-o-y).Alt URL
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References

External links

Gerdau Group homepage

Gerdau Ameristeel

{{Authority control Brazilian brands Defence companies of Brazil Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Steel companies of Brazil Companies listed on B3 (stock exchange) Companies based in Rio Grande do Sul Multinational companies headquartered in Brazil Manufacturing companies established in 1901 Companies listed on the Madrid Stock Exchange 1901 establishments in Brazil Economy of Porto Alegre Gerdau family