Gerdau S.A. has announced that it has signed an agreement to purchase Quanex Corp. for around $1.5 billion. The purchase is the fifth this year in North America for Gerdau.
Quanex, through its MacSteel division, is the second largest producer of specialty steel in the United States. It operates three mini-mills, Jackson and Monroe, Mich.; and Fort Smith, Ark. The company also operates six downstream operations in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Wisconsin.
MacSteel has an installed capacity of 1.2 million metric tons of crude steel and 1.1 million metric tons of rolled products per year.
The agreement does not include Quanex’s Building Products business, which is a non steel related operation. Quanex has announced the spin-off of this business to its shareholders prior to the completion of the proposed acquisition.
The acquisition of this company will allow the Gerdau Group to enlarge its presence in the global automotive industry as a supplier of long specialty steel products (SBQ). The presence in the