Brazil’s Gerdau buys out Kalyani stake in Tadipatri steel plant

Brazilian steel company Gerdau has acquired virtually full ownership of what was so far Kalyani Gerdau, a steel plant at Tadipatri in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh, and announced today that the company's name would be changed from Kalyani Gerdau to Gerdau.

The Tadipatra plant is the first in Asia for Geradu, known for its 'long steel' products.

In 2007, Gerdau entered into a joint venture with Karnataka-based Kalyani Steels Ltd to acquire SJK Steel Plant Ltd, with an equal partnership of 45 per cent each. The remaining 10-per cent stake was been held between the previous owner and financial institutions.

By acquiring Kalyani's share, Gerdau now owns 99.5 per cent of the Tadipatri unit.

Gerdau director Visweswaran said, "With the expansion of the equity base, the shareholding of the FIs and the previous owner of the unit has declined to 0.5 per cent".

The plant has an installed capacity of 300,000 tonnes for special steels, mainly focused on the automotive industry; and has also recently started operations of its blast furnace, melt shop, sinter plant, power plant and rolling mill.

''This is a new and very important chapter in Gerdau's history.  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 chief executive officer André B Gerdau Johannpeter said in a press release.

Arvind Mathur, the company's executive director in India, said this move would pave way for Gerdau to cater for the Indian domestic market while improving overall standards in the quality of steels manufactured in the country.