Gerdau Long Steel North America – Beaumont Steel Mill Gerdau is a 112-year-old company that began as a small nail factory in Porto Alegre, Brazil, called Pontas de Paris. Today, the steel company has 45,000 employees and industrial operations in 14 countries in the Americas, Europe, and Asia, with an installed capacity exceeding 25 million metric tons of steel per year. The company first entered the North American market in 1989, when it purchased Canada’s Courtice Steel. A decade later, Gerdau began a series of acquisitions that resulted in 130 locations and a capacity of more than 10 million tons of finished steel products in the U.S. and Canada. The company has a particularly large footprint in Texas, with steel mills in Beaumont and Midlothian, Texas, as well as downstream facilities in Beaumont, Farmersville, Navasota, and Carrollton. The company’s growth in the Texas market is a reflection of the state’s strong economy relative to the rest of the nation. In 2012, Texas consumed more rebar than any other state, accounting for approximately 15 percent of nationwide consumption, according to the Concrete Reinforcing Steel Institute. Gerdau’s mill in Beaumont started production in 1976 as Georgetown Texas Steel and was acquired by Gerdau in 2004. It is a two-strand wire rod mill with a capacity of 700,000 tons of wire rod and coiled rebar. Wire rod from the Beaumont Mill is used to manufacture hundreds of diverse products.
These products include items for the construction and power industries,civil projects, automotive fasteners, springs ,agricultural products, welding electrodes and a multitude of others. It exports to Canada, Mexico, Central and South America by rail or from its neighboring Port of Beaumont. The Midlothian mill started production in 1975,as Chaparral Steel and was acquired by the company in 2007. It has the capacity to produce 1.8 million tons of hot-rolled steel products annually, manufacturing many types, sizes and grades of structural steel, flat sheet pile and special bar quality rounds. Both facilities produce steel from recycled scrap metal through an electric arc furnace process. Much of the recycled raw material comes in the form of vehicles, vehicle parts, old home appliances, and other industrial by-products, such as demolished buildings. This method of steel production consumes fewer materials and less energy than traditional integrated steel mills, and has made steel the most recycled material in the world, more than paper, plastic, aluminum and glass combined. The two mills employ more than 1,200 employees, and both locations are heavily involved with social responsibility efforts in their communities. Gerdau is listed on the stock exchanges of São Paulo, New York, and Madrid and has over 130,000 shareholders.
11 Brazilian Texas Magazine 2013