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Gerdau Employees Are Industry Champions of North America at Global Steel Competition

02/28/2013 - Richard Zhang and Kyle Cormier, employees at the Gerdau steel mill in Whitby, Canada, were industry champions of North America and won second place in the World Steel Association’s 7th annual Steel University Challenge, which took place on 19 February in Brussels, Belgium.

Richard Zhang and Kyle Cormier, employees at the Gerdau steel mill in Whitby, Canada, were industry champions of North America and won second place in the World Steel Association’s 7th annual Steel University Challenge, which took place on 19 February in Brussels, Belgium.
“On behalf of the Gerdau team, congratulations to the participants for a job well done,” said Guilherme C. Gerdau Johannpeter, president of Gerdau’s North American long steel division.
Along with two teammates from Brazil, Zhang and Cormier competed with more than 1,000 teams to earn a spot in the competition. Their task was to refine an order of construction steel grade, which is used in earth-moving equipment. Contestants had two-and-a-half hours to produce the requested steel at minimum cost, and the Gerdau team computed a final cost of $29.51 per ton.
Alexey Mordashov, chairman of the World Steel Association and chief executive officer of Severstal JSC, presented the trophies and certificates to the winners. “I am delighted to meet ‘the next generation of Bessemers’ here today," said Mordashov. “The future of the steel industry lies in the areas of innovation and high-technology development, which will be driven forward by the winners today. The steel industry offers great career opportunities for those who wish to help society to meet its future sustainability challenges.”
Pictured below: Participants in the industry category, Richard Zhang and Kyle Cormier, from the Gerdau mill in Whitby, pictured with Alexey Mordashov, chairman of the World Steel Association and chief executive officer of Severstal JSC, during the Grand Final of the 7th Virtual Steelmaking Challenge, organized by World Steel. © Bernal Revert
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 more than 45,000 employees and industrial operations in 14 countries with operations in the Americas, Europe and Asia, which together represent an installed capacity of more than 25 million metric tons of steel per year. Gerdau is the largest recycler in Latin America and around the world and 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 approximately 140,000 shareholders.