President of Usiminas, Sergio Leite de Andrade, said he is optimistic about the recovery of the Brazilian economy, especially in the automotive, civil construction and infrastructure sectors
According to Sergio Leite de Andrade, president of Usiminas, the increase in demand for the company's products and signs of growth in the automobile industry, civil construction and infrastructure are factors that make him optimistic. In an interview with Jornal O Tempo, the president of the group dealt with several subjects, some of which are described below. Check out!
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“We made three important decisions. Due to the perspectives of the Brazilian economy and relevant signs of growth recovery, we decided to return to operation the number one blast furnace at the Ipatinga plant, to return to the number 1 melt shop at the Ipatinga plant and we will also return to our operations at the laminations in Cubatão. We also decided to increase our level of investments this year, due to the good financial results, from R$600 million to R$800 million. We are entering the second half of the year with positive expectations.”
“Mineração Usiminas, in the second quarter, presented an excellent result. We have the record EBITDA in the entire history of the company, around R$380 million. Our mining unit continues at a firm, solid pace. In the following quarter, we had the licensing for a large investment in mining, which is the dry stacking of tailings, in the order of R$ 160 million. We intend to put this equipment into operation in the first quarter of 2021. With it, we ended the operation of our last dam, the Samambaia dam. In the steel field, we are seeing an economic recovery. The macro numbers have indicated that.”
Regarding the investments mentioned above, the reheating of the industry, customer demand for the company's products, as well as optimism in general, the president was asked if there would be new hires to compose the company's staff and he said no. In an excerpt from the interview, the president said that “This resumption will not mean hiring personnel”. In another, it reports the number of current workers. “In the five companies, we are 13 employees, and we have another 5.000 to 6.000 employees from partner companies. We are a universe of 18 thousand people. With greater concentration in Usiminas Siderurgia. In mining, we have around 1.200 employees, in Soluções as well. At Usiminas Mecânica, we are heading towards this level, At Unigal, there are around 330. And the rest are at Usiminas.”
Has the dollar contributed to the company? The dollar brings Usiminas a clear advantage in the case of mining. The company is strongly exporting. In the case of the steel industry, the most suitable dollar for us would be close to R$4. We have a cost in the steel industry, a strong impact from the dollar, which increases our cost by more than 60%. I point out that iron ore is purchased in dollars, although it is a totally Brazilian product, as well as coal and other inputs. For us, today, the dollar is valued. As a whole, if one company benefits, another is harmed, but we have to seek the balance point. In the Brazilian economy, this point is between R$4 and R$4,50, not above 5.
Finally, the president commented on investments in innovation. “Innovation is an extremely important topic for us. We experienced a difficult moment in 2016. After a year, in July 2017, when we went from a negative Ebtida to R$ 1,8 billion, we started to focus on strategic planning and building the future. From there, we started to discuss innovation. In 2018, we created an innovation department. We have a research center that allows us to remain state-of-the-art in terms of products, but we are working in this field more broadly. We are mobilizing all of our employees to generate ideas that can be implemented more quickly, for small and major improvements. We recently awarded our employees in an internal program that had more than 300 innovative ideas. The six main ideas brought a gain of BRL 25 million a year. We are doing a lot of interaction with startups, with more than 20. It has been a very rich discussion. We are also doing this work with Senai's innovation centers and also with universities. We are experiencing an ebullition in terms of innovation. The InovaAí Program has mobilized all staff, it is the watchword for building the present and future of companies.”
