In July, 2008, the Votorantim Group redefined the Steel Business positioning within its structure and created Votorantim Siderurgia (Steel) - VS. The new unit started with nearly 5,300 employees and operations in three countries: Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia.

VS has two productive units in Brazil. The first one was founded in 1937 in the city of Barra Mansa, in Rio de Janeiro, and produces 750 thousand tons per year. The second one, to be inaugurated in 2009 in the city of Resende, also in Rio de Janeiro, will be able to produce 1 million tons of long steel when it reaches full capacity.

In Colombia, VS has a 72.67% share at Acerías Paz del Rio steelworks, which has a production capacity of 450 thousand tons of long and flat steel per year and a 52.9% share in the capital of AcerBrag, which has a production of 250 thousand tons of long steel per year. Both were acquired in 2007.

In addition to the steel production and trading, Votorantim Siderurgia (Steel) operates iron ore and mineral coal mines, has eucalyptus forests for charcoal production produces pig-iron and counts on corporate share in the Usiminas System.

VS’s steel is mainly used by the civil and mechanical construction industry. Among the manufactured products, there are armored concrete rebars, wires, angles, sections, mesh, latticework, and carbon-steel wire rod destined to cold lamination and wiredrawing.

According to a policy of sustainable development and concerned with natural resource preservation, the Barra Mansa steelworks has been the first in Latin America to adopt the oxygen blowing and continuous ingoting besides using scrap steel in its processes.