Latin-American steelmaker Ternium has received approval, without restriction, from the Brazilian authorities to conclude the acquisition of Companhia Siderúrgica do Atlântico (CSA), the country’s trade defence agency Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Econômica (Cade) says.

Cade adds that the agreement does not encourage anticompetitive conduct, Kallanish notes.

"In fact, from a production point of view, CSA's carbon steel slabs are not representative of the dynamics of the Brazilian market," says Cade, adding that “… companies already active in the market have the capacity to absorb any possible deviations in demand."

Cade extended the decision-making period over the agreement, after local steelmaker Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN) was officially registered as an interested party in the authorisation process on 2 June.

CSN maintains that the sale of the integrated steelmaking plant of Thyssenkrupp in Brazil to Ternium would drastically reduce the availability of slabs in the Brazilian market for competitors of the Techint Group, as reported.

Ternium and thyssenkrupp announced that they had reached a deal regarding the sale of the Brazilian slab producer to Ternium in February. The transaction is valued at €1.50 billion ($1.77billion).