Reuters, SAO PAULO, August 23 – The CEO of Brazilian steelmaker CSN said on Wednesday that his company is still interested in entering the North American market but would not make an offer for U.S. Steel because it is too large of a target.
Steinbruch, who is also a controlling shareholder in CSN, said to Reuters at an event sponsored by the banking Santander Brasil in Sao Paulo that while the company is interested in expanding in the United States, it is now concentrating on smaller acquisition prospects.
“We have no interest in submitting a bid for US Steel. The executive denied market rumours that they would enter the bidding war for U.S. Steel and stated that it was too large of an asset and that they were committed to lowering their leverage.
The Brazilian company still operates a mill in Germany where it manufactures long steel, but it sold a steel mill in the United States to Steel Dynamics in 2018 for $400 million.
Leverage at CSN was 2.78 times net debt to EBITDA at the end of the second quarter, up from 1.31 times a year earlier. The corporation intends to lower this leverage to a range of 1.75 to 1.95.