SMI Production at the new OCTG mill in Brazil VSB has started!

November 7, 2011: Vallourec & Sumitomo Tubos do Brasil Ltda (VSB) has completed most of the planned construction and has been granted API Q1 and ISO9001 certifications. After the inauguration ceremony held on September 1st, commercial production has now started.

VSB started the construction of the steelworks as a joint venture with Vallourec in 2008  in Jeceaba, state of Minas Gerais in Brazil, for the production of carbon and low alloy seamless steel pipes. VSB is an integrated steel works from steelmaking to OCTG pipe finishing, including zero-carbon-dioxide-emission blast furnaces using eucalyptus charcoal which are now in the final stage of construction. Seamless pipes are currently manufactured from billets produced by VSB electric furnace or sourced from either SMI or Vallourec. The overall manufacturing process will be completed by early 2012. SMI through VSB will supply high quality OCTG seamless pipes as a complementary asset to the existing mills in Japan, both in terms of capacity and geographical location.