Steel giant Ternium to buy Brazilian steel maker for 1.3 bln USD

Ternium, a steel producer which is part of the Italian-Argentine Techint conglomerate, announced Wednesday it would buy Brazil's Companhia Siderurgica do Atlantico (CSA) for 1.26 billion euros (1.33 billion U.S. dollars).

This acquisition is part of the group's strategy to boost its presence in Latin America's three largest industrial countries -- Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, Ternium's president Daniel Novegil announced in a statement.

It would "strengthen our business in strategic sectors," Novegil said.

CSA, one of Brazil's most modern steel making plants, located in Rio de Janeiro, had an annual production capacity of 5 million tons of steel.

Ternium bought CSA from the German-owned Thyssenkrupp, which had sought to offload this Brazilian steel maker after years of losses.

CSA had a debt of 1.5 billion euros (1.58 billion U.S.dollars) with Brazil's National Bank for Economic and Social Development. After the acquisition, Ternium would undertake the debt.

Currently, Ternium has an annual production capacity of 11 million tons of steel, with factories in Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Guatemala and the United States.

Jointly with Japan's Nippon Steel, Ternium also runs Usiminas, the largest steel making plant in Brazil. Endi