Gerdau acquires partner’s stake at Tadipatri steel plant

Gerdau acquires partner’s stake at Tadipatri steel plantA Leading Brazilian producer of long steel, Gerdau announced on Monday that it has acquired joint venture partner, Kalyani’s stake in the steel plant in Tadipatri in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh.

Gerdau also said that it now owns the majority stake in the plant and renamed it Gerdau from Kalyani Gerdau. Gerdau had entered into a joint venture with Karnataka-based Kalyani Steels Limited to acquire SJK Steel Plant Limited. The companies held 45 per cent each in the firm and the remaining 10 per cent stake was held by the previous owner and financial institutions.

Gerdau has now acquired the stake held by Kalyani Steels and has become the majority owner of the plant, which is its first plant in Asia. Gerdau director Visweswaran pointed out that the company now owns 99.5 per cent stake in the Tadipatri unit. He said that the issuing of new equity shares resulted in the stake of FIs and the previous owner to fall to 0.5 per cent.

Gerdau’s CEO, André B. Gerdau Johannpeter said, “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.”

The plant has a installed capacity of 300,000 tonnes of special steels and it mainly focuses on automotive market. The plant also started operations for blast furnace, melt shop, sinter plant, power plant and rolling mill.