Steelmaker Cia. Siderúrgica Nacional made an appeal to Brazilian antitrust watchdog Cade to block the merger of Votorantim SA's long steel operations in the country with ArcelorMittal subsidiary ArcelorMittal Brasil SA.
Cade conditionally approved the merger Feb. 7 and CSN sought to cancel the decision, demanding fresh analysis of the deal. The conditional approval called for ArcelorMittal to sell two groups of assets, including a long steel unit in Brazil's Espirito Santo state, to two different buyers, Business News Americas reported Feb. 27, citing a report by news service Agência Estado.
CSN's appeal is based on not all members of the Cade panel having access to information that might have been relevant in determining which way to vote.
In February 2017, ArcelorMittal Brasil and Votorantim agreed to combine their Brazilian operations to create a long steel producer with annual production capacity of 5.6 million tons of crude steel and 5.4 million tons of rolled products.
