Simec Cariacica steel plant

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Simec Cariacica steel plant (Usina siderúrgica Simec Cariacica (Portuguese)), also known as ArcelorMittal Cariacica, is an electric arc furnace (EAF) steel plant operating in Cariacica, Espírito Santo, Brazil.

Location

The map below shows the exact location of the plant in Cariacica, Espírito Santo, Brazil:

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• Location: Rua Leopoldina, 900, Jardim América - CEP 29140-075 - Cariacica - ES - Brasil
• Coordinates (WGS 84): -20.342910, -40.360864 (exact)

Background

Simec Cariacica is an electric steel plant near Vitória, capital of Brazil’s Espírito Santo state. The plant has an annual production capacity of 600,000 tonnes of crude steel and 450,000 tonnes of laminated steel. It employs approximately 500 workers, producing rebar and profiles for the automotive, energy, mechanical and civil construction industries.

Founded in 1942 under the name Cofavi ​​(Companhia Ferro e Aço de Vitória), the Cariacica steel plant was acquired by the Belgo-Mineira company in 1993 and subsequently became part of the ArcelorMittal Group until 2018, when it was sold to Mexico’s Grupo Simec.

Expansion plans

In December 2020, new owner Grupo Simec announced that it would invest US $50 million (R$ 257.8 million) in modernizing and expanding the Cariacica plant. The environmental impact report for the expansion project, published in 2021, called for a renovation of the plant's existing electric arc furnace to raise crude steel production capacity from 600 to 800 thousand  tonnes per annum. Subsequent press reports, as recently as June 2022, continued to cite plans to expand the plant's furnace capacity to 800 ttpa.

As of mid-2023, several sources were reporting a higher investment figure of R$ 1.5 billion in the plant's modernization and expansion, but plans to revamp the electric arc furnace were no longer mentioned, making it unclear whether the plant's steel production capacity would actually be increased upon completion of the project in 2025.

As of December 2024, there had been no further updates regarding status of the expansion project.

Plant Details

Table 1: General Plant Details

Phase	Plant status	Announced date	Start date	Workforce size
Main plant	Operating	–	1942	579
Expansion	Announced	2020	2025	110

Table 2: Ownership and Parent Company Information

Phase	Parent company	Parent company PermID	Parent company GEM ID	Owner	Owner company PermID	Owner company GEM ID
Main plant	Grupo Simec SAB de CV [100.0%]	4295884304 [100%]	E100000130728 [100%]	GV do Brasil Industria e Comercio de Aço Ltda	5037476219	E100000130990

Table 3: Process and Products

Phase	Steel product category	Steel products	Steel sector end users	ISO 14001	Main production equipment	Detailed production equipment
Main plant	finished rolled	rebar, profiles	automotive; building and infrastructure; energy	2022	EAF	1 Demag EAF (70-tonne, 1984)
Expansion	finished rolled	rebar, profiles	automotive; building and infrastructure; energy	–	EAF	EAF capacity to be expanded from 600 to 800 ttpa, specifics unknown

Table 4: Crude Steel Production Capacities (thousand tonnes per annum)

*Please see our Frequently Asked Questions page for an explanation of the different capacity operating statuses.

Phase	Capacity operating status*	Electric arc furnace steelmaking capacity	Nominal crude steel capacity (total)
Main plant	operating	600 TTPA	600 TTPA
Expansion	announced	200 TTPA	200 TTPA

Table 5: Crude Iron Production Capacities (thousand tonnes per annum)

*Please see our Frequently Asked Questions page for an explanation of the different capacity operating statuses.

Phase	Capacity operating status*
Main plant	operating
Expansion	announced

Table 6: Actual Crude Steel Production by Year (thousand tonnes per annum)

Year	EAF Production	Total (all routes)
2020	539 TTPA	539 TTPA
2021	463 TTPA	463 TTPA
2022	476 TTPA	476 TTPA

Articles and Resources

Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of steel power plants, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Steel Plant Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.

Resources

• Company website