Gerdau announced plans to invest $524 million to build a new steelmaking plant in Argentina. The facility would allow Sipar Gerdau, Gerdau’s local company in Argentina, to manufacture its own steel and more than quadruple its finished product capacity. It is to be located in Perez, approximately 3 miles from Sipar Gerdau’s current mill. With the new steel plant, Sipar Gerdau’s production capacity will reach 1.1 million metric tons of steel.

Gerdau is planning on completing the first stage of the new plant in 2011. The company will reach an annual production capacity of 650,000 tons of steel and 710,000 tons of finished long products with the completion of stage one. The second stage of the plant is scheduled to be completed in 2016.