The plant’s existing production lines will be equipped to produce Usibor^®, a press-hardened boron steel with an aluminum-silicon coating used mainly in the automotive industry.  Using Usibor allows manufacturers to create lighter, safer and more environmentally friendly vehicles at an affordable cost.
 
With a strength of 1,500 MPa after hot-stamping, Usibor is one of the most resistant steels used in automotive applications, used mainly for the production of structural parts including A-pillars, B-pillars, frontal and rear bumpers, various types of rails, and the tunnel floor.
 
Usibor has been imported from ArcelorMittal plants in Europe into Brazil since 2012; production in ArcelorMittal Vega do Sul is due to start in the second quarter of 2015. Hot rolled coils will continue to be produced at ArcelorMittal Tubarão in Espírito Santo, Brazil, and the patented aluminum-silicum coating will be applied at ArcelorMittal Vega do Sul.
 
The US$15m investment is in line with the Brazilian government’s Inovar-Auto stimulus program, which seeks to encourage auto makers to invest in the Brazilian automotive industry and to produce more efficient, safer, and technology-advanced vehicles.
 
The investment confirms ArcelorMittal’s commitment to Brazil as a key market and to the automotive industry as a key franchise. ArcelorMittal is working closely with carmakers in Brazil and around the world to help them address their technological and geographical challenges.
 
This includes making sure that ArcelorMittal’s lightweight products are available globally; and continuing to develop products and solutions to make cars lighter and more fuel-efficient at an affordable cost, without compromising safety.
 
Usibor is one of the flagship products of ArcelorMittal’s S-in motion steel solutions catalogue, which offers more than 60 solutions which can help reduce the weight of the body-in-weight by up to 20% compared to a reference C-segment car.