Votorantim makes expansion in the CBA
Valor Econômico
While it monitors, up-close, what it considers to be still weak signs of recovery of the world economy after the crisis, at least for the businesses it leads, Votorantim Metais has decided it is a good time to grow in some segments in Brazil. In view of the real estate boom, for instance, the metal holding company of the Votorantim group will invest R$ 400 million (US$ 222 million), 40% of its total budget for 2010, in a project for the expansion of aluminum processed products. Infrastructure and packaging are other promising markets.
The money will be used to install two new extrusion presses in the aluminum business unit, operated by the Cia. Brasileira de Alumínio (CBA) in the interior of São Paulo Both pieces of equipment will add 2 thousand tons of capacity to the current 3.6 thousand tons of manufactured material, featuring profiles, used in commercial and residential buildings, etc. Both the machines have already been ordered and VM expects to have them operating still in the fourth quarter of this year. "Our current focus is to meet the growth of the demand we see in the internal market", says João Bosco Silva, Managing Officer of VM. In the international scenario, he explains, there are no solid grounds to justify the resumption of undertakings suspended due to the crisis of September 2008 yet, whether in aluminum or in nickel.
CBA, the biggest aluminum foundry in the country, with 475 thousand tons of capacity a year, has a project to install a line of 125 thousand tons, the eighth of the company, but the plan is on a stand-by due to the cost of energy in the country, considered one of the highest in the world. In the meantime, it seeks to increase its offer of processed products. Nearly 80% of the production of CBA is aimed at the internal market.