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Nippon Steel said to eye new facility in southeast Brazil

Japan's Nippon Steel Corp plans to build a new production facility in Brazil amid stiff competition with rivals such as ArcelorMittal in fast-growing economies, a report said yesterday.

Japan's biggest steelmaker Nippon Steel expects to spend between ¥500 billion and ¥600 billion (US$5 billion to US$6 billion) on the mill in the southeastern city of Cubatao, the Nikkei Shimbun said, without citing sources.

Nippon Steel was expected to begin construction this year through a joint venture with local affiliate Usinas Siderurgicas de Minas Gerais SA (Usiminas). The mill is due to begin operating in 2011, the daily said.

But Nippon Steel said the report was incorrect.

"Nippon Steel does not plan nor intend to build a furnace as reported in the article. We are currently in the process of mulling a plan announced last August that Usiminas would construct a furnace," a spokesman said.

The report said it would be Nippon Steel's first new mill since 1971 and its fifth fully integrated production site.

A first blast furnace would be built for about ¥300 billion with an annual output of 2.7 million tonnes while a second furnace would be added as early as 2015, doubling production to 5.4 million tonnes, the report said.

Usiminas facilities will process part of the intermediate steel material made at the new complex for sales in South America, while unfinished material would be shipped to the US and Europe to make automotive steel sheets, the report said.

Competition among steelmakers is intensifying amid a scramble to supply a construction boom in fast-growing emerging economies.
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