ArcelorMittal Jequitinhonha: technology and development at Vale do Jequitinhonha
ArcelorMittal Jequitinhonha is a subsidiary foresting company of ArcelorMittal Inox Brasil, which is dedicated to the production of wood and charcoal, from cultivated eucalyptus forests, for steelmaking application.
The Company is located in Vale do Jequitinhonha, Minas Gerais State, and occupies a continuous area of 126,300 hectares, which includes the following municipalities: Capelinha, Minas Novas, Turmalina, Itamarandiba and Veredinha.
Twenty percent of this area is maintained as permanent ecological reserve. In addition, the Company, on its own, preserves the so called ‘ecological strips’ – corridors of native forest, which provide the connection among different forest reserves.
For more than 30 years, ArcelorMittal Jequitinhonha has developed scientific projects in order to know better and master the eucalyptus production in Vale do Jequitinhonha. Those studies allowed the Company to master a state-of-the-art technology and produce eucalyptus seedlings from selected clones. The result is a high-performance charcoal, which makes the product suitable for steelmaking application and highly competitive in the global market. For research projects, ArcelorMittal Jequitinhonha made partnership with UFV (Federal University of Viçosa), USP (University of São Paulo), Ufla (Federal University of Lavras) and Fafeid (Federal Integrated Colleges of Diamantina).
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