Key facts
- ArcelorMittal is still evaluating a 5-billion-real ($894 million) investment in a 1.5 million-metric-ton-a-year hot-rolled coil line at Pecem.
- Jorge Oliveira, ArcelorMittal's Brazil head, said the study is taking longer than the company imagined.
- Oliveira said in September that imports would need to fall below 12% of market share for the Pecem project to make sense.
- Brazil has extended steel import controls through the 2026/27 cycle, with a 25% tariff on volumes above quota for covered products.
- Oliveira said ArcelorMittal rerouted product to Europe after the US raised steel tariffs, and the EU has since tightened its own import regime.
ArcelorMittal's proposed $900 million expansion in Brazil is taking longer than planned, the company's top executive in the country told Reuters in an interview published on November 11. Jorge Oliveira, head of ArcelorMittal in Brazil, said late on Tuesday, November 10, that the firm is still evaluating a 5-billion-real ($894 million) investment to add a 1.5 million-metric-ton-a-year hot-rolled coil line at Pecem, in Ceara state.
Oliveira said the company no longer has a firm timetable for finishing the study, though a decision could still come by year-end. "The study is taking longer than we imagined," he said. Last week, ArcelorMittal said the economics behind the project, which would install a hot-strip mill to turn semi-finished slab into higher-value hot-rolled coil, would be disclosed in February.
The potential expansion comes as cheaper imports, largely from Asian countries, have increasingly gained market share in Brazil. Oliveira said in September that imports would need to fall below 12% of market share for the Pecem project to make sense. He told Reuters the share was still hovering closer to 18%, well above the roughly 10% pre-pandemic norm, and he attributed the cheaper prices abroad to being artificially depressed. "Nobody can compete with dumping," he said.
Brazil has extended steel import controls through the 2026/27 cycle, with a 25% tariff on volumes above quota for covered products. Producers including ArcelorMittal have argued the measures helped slow the rise in imports but are still pressing for broader tariffs and faster anti-dumping investigations.
Across the West, countries have rolled out tougher trade defenses on steel, leaving less-protected markets more exposed, Oliveira said. ArcelorMittal already rerouted product to Europe after the US raised steel tariffs, though the EU has also now tightened its own import regime. Through a project such as Pecem, the company could convert more slab into higher-value steel in Brazil rather than depend as heavily on overseas markets that are becoming harder to access.