Gerdau, a leading multinational steel company, today said it has acquired remaining stake of its joint venture partner Kalyani Steels at its first plant in India for an undisclosed sum.
The plant, which is located in Andhra Pradesh's Tadipatri, has an installed capacity of 3,00,000 tonnes of special steels, mainly focused on the automotive market.
Recently, the plant has started operations of its blast furnace, melt shop, sinter plant, power plant and rolling mill.
The company, which is a leading producer of long steel in the Americas and one of the largest suppliers of special long steel in the world, also said that it is renaming the venture from Kalyani Gerdau to Gerdau.
"As we begin our 112th year of business, the start of the production of special steel in India represents our expansion to an important country, with an impressive cultural richness, good economic prospective and very dedicated people" Gerdau's CEO Andre B Gerdau Johannpeter said.
In 2007, Gerdau had entered into a joint venture (JV) with Kalyani Steels to acquire SJK Steel Plant Ltd with an equal partnership of 45 per cent each to form a JV.
The company has been increasing its equity in the JV since then through making capital investments and now holds about 99.5 per cent stake in the venture, Gerdau India's Director Marketing Ramasamy Visweswaran later said, though he declined to comment on the deal size.
Gerdau, the leading long steel producer in Americas, has industrial operations in 14 countries with operations in the Americas, Europe and Asia, which together represent a capacity of more than 25 million tonnes. The company is listed on the stock exchanges of Sao Paulo, New York and Madrid.
