Over a century of prestige and growth make of Gerdau one of the main suppliers of long steel products in the Americas. This strength, strategic partnerships and sustainable management have consolidated Gerdau Corsa in Mexico
Gerdau’s history goes back to 1901 at the hands of German immigrants settled in Porto Alegre, in Southern Brazil. The nails factory started by Joao and Hugo Gerdau began its transformation in 1946, when Curt Johannpeter -Hugo’s son-in-law- took the reins of the company, thus spreading its business and operations.
The territorial growth began in the second half of the 20th century, and in 2007 the company arrived in Mexico.
Alliances, acquisitions and investments for success in Mexico
The acquisitions and strategic partnerships have been a key factor for Gerdau’s consolidation in the Mexican market.
Upon its arrival in the country, Gerdau purchased the totality of Siderúrgica Tultitlán (SIDERTUL steelmaker), which already had more than 50 years of experience in steel production.
A year later, Gerdau acquired 49% of the stocks of the Aceros Corsa company and its distributors’ network. After this strategic alliance, investments were planned to build the largest construction profiles plant in the country in Cuidad Sahagún, Hidalgo. These facilities started working in 2015, after a US$600M investment. Their set-up capacity is of a million tons of liquid steel and 700,000 tons of laminated products.
“We are supported by 120 years of experience in the steel industry, we are one of the main long steel products manufacturers in America and one of the leading special steel suppliers in the world”, added Denis Gomes, Director of Supply Chain, Metal and Energy for Gerdau Corsa.
Proved leadership all over the continent
Gomes graduated in Business Administration at the Federal University of Santa Maria (Brazil) and, afterwards, he earned an MBA with specialty in Finance at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, also in Brazil.
He also took updating courses during his years spent in Peru. In 2020 he finished his studies in the High Management Perfection Program, at the IPADE (PanAmerican Institute for High Business Management, in Mexico). Also, Gomes took part in the Núclo Preparatorio de Oficiales de la Reserva (Reserve Officer Preparatory Core), in the Brazilian Armed Forces.
Regarding his work, Denis Gomes started his career in Coca-Cola, working in the Finance, Accounting, Marketing and Strategic Planning departments. During his time in this company he earned the certification as Chief Auditor of the Coca-Cola Quality System and took part as Quality National Award Examining Board Auditor in Brazil.
After joining the Gerdau Bank, hecompleted the Trainees Program and later he became an integral part at Siderperu, being appointed Leader of Finance and Relationships with Investors, with the aim of achieving the Company’s financing reorganization; during that period he took part in the Global Comptrollers Training Program, and he got achievements such as the implementation of the financing area into the Shared Services Center (SSC) in 2012, thus centralizing the financing operations of six countries in Latin America.
In 2015 he took over the SSC General Management, thus incorporating part of the United States operations, and in 2018 he was appointed Finance Manager at Gerdau Corsa, where his main challenge was to optimize the financing and capital organization for the expansion and growth of the Company in Mexico. In December, 2020, Denis took over as Director of Supply Chain, Metal, Logistics, Energy and S&OP (sales and planning).
GERDAU CORSA IN MEXICO
• Three steel production and lamination plants.
• More than one million tons of liquid steel made a year
• Seven scrap metal process and recollection units.
• Leadership in construction profiles production
Resources to face challenges
As well as for many other industries worldwide, matters such as logistics and the supply chain have meant a series of challenges for Gerdau Corsa since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out.
However, solutions to those problems through a digital mindset and the implementation of digital tools have allowed a quick and efficient performance. The use of Artificial Intelligence has been useful for the automatic and remote classification for the recollection and processing of metal raw materials. Also, the implementation of the Gerdau Tracking System (GTS) for the Logistics area allows an accurate monitoring of the deliveries to each client.
“The most prepared companies, and those which reacted in a quick and efficient way were the ones to transform the supply chain’s basic functions”, the executive declared.
Evolution of the supply chain
Gerdau’s Supply Chain consists of the following areas:
• Purchase and Processing of Metal Raw Materials
• Logistics
• Energy
• Co-products
• Supplies
• Sales and Planning (S&OP)
The latter is now in charge of managing and integrating the rest of the areas according to the market’s needs identified by the Business area, of the optimization of each of the resources with the aim of reaching maximum production capacity, as well as guaranteeing the raw materials from a deep knowledge of the impact of the market’s prices and tendencies.
The main purpose of this integration is to deliver the products to each client timely and in due form, customizing the work each of them may require. For that purpose, the Company is supported by the development of Business Intelligence programs, which allow the identification of prices, tendencies, raw materials demand and other factors. Also, a Supply Chain Innovation Day has been created, an event which gathers the whole supply chain and invites sector-related start-ups, besides giving recognition to best practices and implementations.
Boosting Suppliers
Gerdau Corsa has created alternatives to funding programs for its supply chain along with different banks.
These mechanisms have the purpose of developing and strengthen suppliers who are considered Business Partners for the Company by easing their access to credit, besides contributing to the economy recovery.
Efforts for a sustainable future... And for the Present
All of the production output from Gerdau Corsa is made from millions of tons of recycled materials, making Gerdau the largest recyclers in Latin America.
Among other related efforts, the processes developed by Gerdau have allowed the company to reduce its carbon footprint, considering that per each ton of steel produced in the world, 1.89 CO2 tons are emitted (global average quantity within the steel industry) whereas the Company has reduced its average down to 0.93 CO2 tones per each steel ton produced, besides assuming the commitment of reducing it to 0.83 CO2 tones until 2031.
Another remarkable effort was the sustainability agreement entered into with BBVA (Banco Bilbao Vizacaya Argentaria) for the import of strap metal with an investment of US$60 million, positively affecting with this transaction the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), thus making sure to stock the company up with recycled raw materials and promoting the reuse of solid materials, and at the same time contributing to Circular Economy.
“We are in continuous search for the improvement of environmental management which makes us become a leading company and a model within the industry”, Gomes explained.
Growth and diversification in perspective
For the future, Gerdau Corsa foresees a growth in the country which will keep present challenges related to logistics and energy, which are subject to each country’s regulation and policies.
There are plans for a markets diversification beyond the iron and steel industry. The Company is also working in contributing to a more equitable community through diversity and inclusion policies and working in social projects related to education, environment and health which will allow it to contribute in neighboring communities.
“We will continue working to update our industry and become a model to reach other 120 years and contribute to a better world”, concluded Denis Gomes, Director of Supply Chain, Metal and Energy for Gerdau Corsa.
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