Despite the existence of several attempts to produce iron locally not only along the colonial period but also along the Empire, for different reasons these endeavors failed, each in its own time, and the Brazilian steel-making entered the 20th century with very little practical expression....

The debate over the Brazilian national steel-making problem took shape in the end of the 1900 decade and lasted until 1941, with the creation, by the Brazilian federal government, of the Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN – National Steel Company) to build and exploit the Volta Redonda steel...