Brazilian Gerdau Acquires Quanex’s Steel Business

Brazilian Gerdau acquires Quanex’s steel business

RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) — Brazilian steelmaker Gerdausigned an agreement on Monday to acquire the steel business of Quanex Corporate, a U.S.-based manufacturer of engineered materials and components for vehicles.

The total cost of the transaction is 1.5 billion U.S. dollars. Gerdau said that it offered 39.20 dollars per share to acquire Macsteel, the steelmaker controlled by Quanex, which operates three steel plants and is the second largest special steels producer in the United States.

Macsteel, with 1,600 employees, is capable of producing 1.2 million tons of steel and 1.1 million tons of rolled steel per year.

Gerdau said the proposal, which has been passed at Quanex’s administrative board, still needs to be approved by its shareholders. The Brazilian company expects the operation to be accomplished by the end of the first quarter of 2008.

“The acquisition will allow the Gerdau Group to expand its presence in the vehicular industry’s global market, as a provider of special long steels,” the company stated.

Gerdau also announced the acquisition of other companies in 2007, including the purchasing of U.S. Chaparral Steel for 4.22 billion U.S. dollars.

It currently operates in many Latin American countries, as wellas in the United States, Canada, Spain and India.

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