Em busca de carvão vegetal barato: o deslocamento de siderúrgicas para a Amazônia

Abstract

The article analyzes the process the installation and operation, in the Eastern Brazilian Amazon area, of merchant pig iron producers the past two decades. In a smaller number and in a slower rhythm than expected by the state planners, twelve producers have settled in the Carajas Railroad Corridor. A merchant pig iron production requires high amounts of energy, supplied by charcoal. The article indicates meant an industry migration to that region whereas, until the 90’s, such producers were almost exclusively located in the Brazilian southeast, and that the charcoal demand is the main link between the industrial plants and the regional socio-economy. The charcoal production has resulted in many social and environmental impacts. Impacts materialized by the big pressure on the Amazon rain forest through imprudent environmental practices, and by charcoal production supported by precarious labor conditions, unhealthy working environment, and low wages. Such a scenario draw one alternative: the maintenance of pig iron production using the current patterns and the attachment of electric arc furnace on the existents blast furnaces in order to produce steel. At end the article appoints that the installing minimills do not solve the main socioenvironmental problem in the region: the processing of iron ore linked to the harmful effects caused by charcoal production. On the contrary, they can be even worsened.