October 14, 2008

Maragusa to start construction of 0.5 million tonne plant in early 2008

BNamericas reported that Brazilian pig iron producer Maragusa plans to build a 500,000 tonnes per year steel plant in northern Pará state and that the construction is expected to begin in early 2008

Mr Zeferino Abreu Neto administrative director of Maragusa said that "The viability study for the steel project has been completed and is still carrying out studies regarding the economic and financial aspects of the new steel plant. Output would start in 2 years to 3 years."

Maragusa aims to plant 2,500 hectare of eucalyptus this year, which would be used to produce charcoal for its pig iron operation. He said that the startup of the second blast furnace is not a priority we would rather focus on our forestation program.

According to earlier reports, the pig iron plant involves four blast furnaces with capacity of some 12,000 tonnes per month each and Maragusa plans to start up one blast furnace a year.