Gerdau Ameristeel Corporation is pleased to announce that, on September 15th 2009, the Ontario Securities Commission has granted approval for the company to adopt International Financial Reporting Standards with an adoption date of January 1st 2009 and a transition date of January 1st 2008.

Gerdau Ameristeel believes that the adoption of IFRS is in the best interests of the company and the users of its financial information because the adoption of IFRS will align the bases of accounting under which the company and its majority shareholder, Gerdau SA, prepare their financial statements and increase the comparability of the company's financial statements to those of a number of global issuers, including competitors within the steel industry, who already prepare, or will soon be required to prepare, financial statements in accordance with IFRS.

Gerdau Ameristeel has substantially completed the process to transition from US GAAP to IFRS. Its comprehensive IFRS conversion plan addresses changes in accounting policies, restatement of comparative periods, internal controls and any required changes to business processes. The plan generally consists of three primary phases, which in certain cases will be in process concurrently as IFRS is applied to specific areas.