São Paulo – The Algerian group Cevital is set to build a steel plant in Marabá, in Brazil’s Pará state, its CEO Issad Rebrab told the Brazilian president Michel Temer during a meeting at government seat Palácio do Planalto, in Brasília, this Tuesday (8). “We have decided to build a steel complex with an initial capacity for 300,500 tons of steel,” Rebrab said to ANBA over the phone after the meeting with Temer.
Cevital owns a steel products plant in Italy, which was originally owned by the Lucchini group and is the country’s second biggest, according to Rebrab. Therefore, the Algerian company already possesses the knowledge it needs to operate in the industry, and the location in Marabá ensures easy access to iron ore produced by mining company Vale out of Carajás, another locality in Pará.
The CEO said it was Vale that thought of a Marabá steel plant project, but the Brazilian mining company ultimately let go of its plans, and now Cevital will take charge. The goal is to supply semi-finished goods and other steel products to Europe and Algeria.
“We have the market, the technology and the raw material,” the Algerian CEO said. “The near entirety of output will be exported,” he added.
The group is conducting studies and canvassing for suppliers before construction begins. According to the Rebrab, construction should take three years and could create 10,000 job posts. Once the plant is up and running, he estimates 2,500 direct jobs will be created.
“It is a major project,” the CEO said, adding that the plant will help boost Marabá’s economy, as well as add value to ore extracted in the state of Pará and help increase exports from Brazil.
The Cevital group comprises 19 subsidiaries and is active in three primary fields: industry, autos and services, and agrifoods and distribution.
Foodstuffs
The foodstuffs sector is one of the main activity fields of the group, which, according to its president, accounts for 70% of foods products exported from Brazil to Algeria. Sugar, soy bran, vegetable oils and maize are some of the items. “We are Brazil’s main client in the Algeria market,” he said.
Algeria, just as other Arab countries, relies on imports to secure the supply of food to its population and Cevital invests in the Brazilian agribusiness sectors, according to the executive, to also assure “the country’s food security.”
“We determined that to better assure better import conditions from Brazil we need to invest here,” he said. “And our first investment is in logistics,” he said.
The company is planning to build four port terminals for shipping agricultural items in Santarém, Miritituba, Vila do Conde and Marabá, all in the state of Pará. Rebrab said that the land for the enterprises has already been bought.
In addition to this, the company owns grain storage silos in Mato Grosso for exports destined to Algeria.
The business owner also said that Temer “very much appreciated” the information. To Rebrab, Brazil’s economic recovery will facilitate the attraction of foreign investments.
According to information published on Cevital’s website, last year the group had DZD 240 billion (USD 2.17 billion) in revenues, DZD 34 billion (USD 308 million) in net profit, and it invested DZD 33.9 billion (USD 307 million). Cevital has 15,130 employees.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum and Sérgio Kakitani
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