Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional, one of Brazil's largest steelmakers, said on Wednesday night (Sept. 2) that Benjamin Steinbruch is leaving the post of chief executive to return as chairman of the board, a position he had left in April. Starting Thursday (Sept. 3), Fabio Schvartsman, a former chief executive of mining giant Vale and paper producer Klabin, takes over, according to a fato relevante, the mandatory disclosure filing that Brazilian listed companies send to regulators.
Steinbruch, 73, took over CSN after leading the winning consortium in the company's 1993 privatization. Over 33 years he expanded the group beyond steel into mining, cement, logistics and power, according to G1 and InfoMoney. In 1997 he also led the consortium that bought control of then Companhia Vale do Rio Doce for US$ 3.3 billion; CSN exited the miner's controlling bloc in 2001. Steinbruch also served as first vice president of Fiesp, São Paulo's main industry federation.
Deleveraging drive
The handover comes amid an asset sale program aimed at cutting debt. In January, CSN announced divestments including its cement unit. In June, it announced the sale of a relevant stake in infrastructure assets such as port terminals, its share in the MRS freight railway and its stake in logistics firm Tora, InfoMoney reports. Net debt stood at 42.13 billion reais in the second quarter. CSN shares have fallen 33.6% in 2026 and the company is valued at about 7.9 billion reais.
The new chief
Schvartsman holds a production engineering degree from the University of São Paulo's Polytechnic School and a graduate degree from FGV, a Brazilian business school, according to G1. He spent ten years at wood panel maker Duratex and 22 at energy and chemicals group Ultra, which he left in 2007, then ran Telemar and San Antonio Internacional before leading Klabin, a pulp and paper producer, from 2011 to 2017.
At Vale, he served from May 2017 until 2019. His tenure ended with the collapse of dam I at the Córrego do Feijão mine in Brumadinho, Minas Gerais, which killed 270 people in January 2019; Schvartsman stepped down about a month later. In January 2023, federal prosecutors charged him and 15 others with qualified homicide and environmental crimes. According to G1, a federal appeals court closed the criminal cases in March 2024, but Brazil's Superior Court of Justice reinstated them by majority vote in April this year, and on May 7 he was formally re-included, with proceedings separate from the other defendants.
For CSN's customers, from homebuilders to manufacturers that buy steel and cement, the change in command does not alter contracts or output in the short term. What keeps moving is the sales program: each deal changes the owner of a cement unit, port terminals and a freight railway. For consumers, the effect is indirect and runs through construction and manufacturing costs across the country. The company's stated goal is to bring down the 42.13 billion reais in net debt posted in the second quarter.