Gerdau shuts down Brazilian Maracanaú plant due to low import price

Due to the shutdown of production facilities, 600 plant employees remained unemployed, whose contracts had been suspended since July. 

Brazil's current import tariff ranges from 9.6% to 12.8%, but this is not enough to reduce imports, which rose 48.6% y/y. – up to 3.2 million tons in January-August of this year.

Earlier, Gerdau CEO Gustavo Werneck noted that the situation of these workers will not improve until the state introduces a 25% import duty on steel products, as an alternative to reducing the volume of imports of cheap steel from China and Russia.