Gerdau Group announced that since this June, the No.1 blast furnace at its Ouro Branco plant in Brazil will be upgraded and was expected to be completed in 2022. The group has been ready for customers' regular demand, not affected by blast furnace shutdown.

The steel mill has two blast furnaces, one of which has annual capacity 4.5 million tons of crude steel.

Ouro Branco plant is the largest steel mill in Gerdau Group, and this investment will be for BRL 441 million.

Gerdau's revenue growth in 2018, but its sales have decreased as target market conditions were sluggish. Last year, the group's crude steel output reached around 15.3 million tons, decreasing by 4.8% year on ear, and its sales volume was 14.6 million tons roughly, a year-on-year decrease of 2.5%.

Gerdau group mentioned that sales decrease was mainly due to dropped exports for Brazil and weak demand from Argentine market.