Gerdau Celebrates 110 Years, Announces New Branding
05/24/2011 - Gerdau recently celebrated 110 years of existence, and is introducing a new brand and visual identity. The long steel and special steel operations of Gerdau in North America, Gerdau Ameristeel and Gerdau Macsteel, will now be known as Gerdau, but with new descriptors.
Gerdau recently celebrated 110 years of existence with its 45,000 employees in their respective countries.
Gerdau's history began in 1901 as a small nail factory in Porto Alegre, Brazil, called Pontas de Paris. The company now has industrial operations in 14 countries in the Americas, Europe, and Asia, with an installed capacity exceeding 25 million tonnes of steel per year. Gerdau is also the largest recycler in Latin America, and it transforms millions of tons of scrap into steel around the world every year.
"For more than a century now, we have grown and diversified our business along steel's value chain with profit in every year, always striving for efficiency in our operations and continuous improvement of services for our customers,” said Gerdau’s CEO, André B. Gerdau Johannpeter. “We saw this anniversary as an opportunity to consolidate the image of the Gerdau brand for North America, which has always been an important market for our company.”
As part of its anniversary celebration, Gerdau is introducing a new brand and visual identity. A new logo has become lighter and more modern. In addition, the long steel and special steel operations of Gerdau in North America, Gerdau Ameristeel and Gerdau Macsteel, will now be known as Gerdau.
Descriptors were developed to differentiate between the parent company and the business operations that will now be called Gerdau. The descriptor for the long steel operations in North America, previously Gerdau Ameristeel, will be Gerdau Long Steel North America. Gerdau Special Steel North America is the descriptor for the company’s special steel operations, previously known as Gerdau Macsteel.
“The new brand is a positive development that will improve our business opportunities in North America,” said Mario Longhi, President and CEO of Gerdau Long Steel North America. “We will continue to manufacture our products at our facilities and leverage our global resources to service the needs of our customers.”
Gerdau recently announced plans to invest $320 million to expand its special bar quality steel production capacity in North America by 400,000 tonnes through 2014. Studies are being conducted to build a new special steel mill with an installed capacity between 700,000 and 800,000 tonnes.
The changes will occur gradually over the next 12 to 18 months. Marketing materials, including road signs, product tags, purchase orders, and order confirmations, will be replaced during that time. Among the immediate changes are new website addresses, www.gerdau.com/longsteel, which will replace www.gerdauameristeel.com and www.gerdau.com/specialsteel, which will replace www.gerdaumacsteel.com.
Gerdau is the leading producer of long steel in the Americas and one of the largest suppliers of special long steel in the world. It has over 45,000 employees and industrial presence in 14 countries with operations in the Americas, Europe, and Asia, which together represent an installed capacity of over 25 million tonnes of steel per year. It is the largest recycler in Latin America, and around the world it transforms millions of metric tons of scrap into steel every year. Gerdau is listed on the stock exchanges of São Paulo, New York, and Madrid and has around 140,000 shareholders.
