That figure compares with an average of about 2.5 at other mini-mills and about 5.2 at the nation's six largest steelmakers.

According to the company's website, it is Jordan's largest steelmaker, with a production capacity of 300,000 metric tons of steel per year.

USX, a major energy concern and the nation's largest steelmaker, said its net income rose to $149 million, or 50 cents a share.

Some analysts have estimated that it could cost the nation's largest steelmaker more than $500 million.

At the time, its plants were among the least efficient of those run by the nation's largest steelmakers.

That is, unlike larger steelmakers, they did not measure their success in terms of the sheer tonnage they could manage to produce per year.

Over the last year the steel unit, which is the country's largest steelmaker, has enjoyed renewed profitability as steel capacity declined and prices increased.

Gerdau is the world's 14th largest steelmaker and the largest producer of long steel in the American continent.

Now it is a major energy company while still the nation's largest steelmaker.

But the nation's largest steelmaker will return to the market with "enhanced aggressiveness" and is expected to slash its prices, they said.