20/01/2011

Steelmakers in Brazil have said that production in the ore-rich area around Rio de Janeiro has been unaffected by the devastating landslide and floods that have claimed the lives of hundreds of people in the region.

Spokespeople for Brazil’s fourth-biggest steel maker CSN and the diversified industrial group, Votorantim, have said that their plants escaped the tragedy, and that rail links that bring iron from Minas Gerais state are also working normally.

Steel manufacturing across Brazil now relies heavily on wood chip from sustainable eucalyptus and rubber forests as sources of fuel.