In its 75th edition, the Annual Congress is ABM’s oldest event and one of the most important gatherings in Latin America’s mining, metals, and materials industry. It will be part of the 6th edition of ABM WEEK, to be held at Pro Magno Centro de Eventos, São Paulo, from June 7 to 9, 2022.

Horacidio Leal Barbosa Filho, ABM’s CEO, explains that the history of the Annual Congress is closely intertwined with ABM’s history.

“The Annual Congress was born shortly after ABM itself was created, bringing together mainly academics. Over the years, industry professionals joined the event,” he adds.

History

ABM was founded on October 10, 1944 as the Brazilian Metals Association in the wake of the industrialization Brazil was going through in the 1940s. This move was driven by the need to domestically manufacture products that were previously imported from Europe and the United States, as these countries, the core of the world economy at the time, were involved in the World War II and had drastically reduced their exports to Brazil.

At the time of its foundation, ABM held a general meeting, which became known as Congressinho (little Congress), sowing the first seed for the Annual Congress. The first actual Congress took place from May 14 to 19, 1945 in São Paulo and Volta Redonda, where the CSN steel mill, created by President Getúlio Vargas in 1941, was located. In its first years, the event was usually split in two stages: one in São Paulo and the other one in Rio de Janeiro or Minas Gerais. It used to gather academics, industry professionals, and students.

Technical-scientific exchanges with North American counterparts were also frequent at the time. ABM itself was inspired by the American Society for Metals and adopted the same approach of being a technical association to develop the metallurgical and steel industry in Brazil. 

Engineer Miguel Siegel, a researcher at the Institute of Technological Research (IPT) – where ABM was headquartered in its first years and where the congresses started to take place after a few editions – was one the main actors behind the creation of ABM. Several other founders also came from IPT, such as Fábio Décourt Homem de Melo and Vicente Chiaverini.

Chiaverini was the president of the event’s first organizing committee, on which occasion fifteen works were presented.
The organizers of the ABM Congress have always publicized the studies presented during the event, in the beginning through a publication named ABM Boletim (ABM Newsletter), which was renamed to ABM Noticiário (ABM News) in 1947. Technical studies and theoretical references for the industry were also published by ABM, similarly to what its North American counterpart used to do.

The ABM Annual Congress was also held in other Brazilian cities from the 1950s onwards, such as Porto Alegre (1951 and 1961) and Vitória (1967). Technological advances in the industry and important Brazilian economic policy issues were discussed during the event, such as the need to foster the automotive industry in Brazil – a topic debated at the 1953 Congress. 

“It has always played a pioneering role, bringing to the debate the most innovative topics in the metallurgical field. Other areas were added over the years,” Leal explains.

Step by step, ABM enlarged its scope of representativeness to include professionals from the mining and materials fields. The increasing complexity brought the need to organize thematic committees. 

This process has given rise to seminars and symposiums covering specific areas over the years, such as Steel Rolling (as of 1967), Steelmaking (1969), Ironmaking (1970 ), and Energy (1979).

Important Brazilian figures have attended the ABM Annual Congress over the decades, such as Carlos Lacerda, governor of Guanabara, in 1965, and Dorothea Werneck, Minister of Labor, Industry, and Commerce, in 1992.
Celebration

The 75th anniversary will be celebrated in a ceremony opened by Horacidio Leal and André Luiz Vasconcellos da Costa e Silva, technical director at IBQN (Brazilian Institute of Nuclear Quality), collaborating professor at the Fluminense Federal University, and technical coordinator of the ABM WEEK’s 6th edition.

After the ceremony, Sérgio Neves Monteiro, former chairman of ABM’s Board of Directors and professor at IME (Military Engineering Institute), will give a lecture on New Advanced Materials for the 21st Century. 

Next, André Luiz Costa e Silva will talk about second-phase particles: Concept review and relevance to steel properties. 
Finally, Dagoberto Brandão Santos, professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, will address the topic High and Medium Manganese Steels: Production, Characterization, and Mechanical Performance.

The 6th ABM WEEK is hosted by Gerdau and is sponsored by the following companies: Açokorte, Alkegen, Amepa GmbH, Aperam, ArcelorMittal, Atomat Services, AutoForm, BM Group/Polytec,BRC, BR Event Materials ,CBMM, Combustol, Clariant, Danieli, Dassault Systèmes, DME Engenharia, Eirich, Enacom, Engineering, Evonik, Fosbel, GSI, Harsco, Hatch/CISDI, Ibar, Imerys, IMS Messsysteme GmbH, Isra Vision Parsytec, John Cockerill Industry, Kuttner, Metso Outotec, Nalco Water/Ecolab, Nouryon, Primetals Technologies, PSI Metals, Reframax , RHI Magnesita, Saint-Gobain, SMS Group Paul Wurth/ Vetta, Spraying Systems, Suez, SunCoke, Tecnosulfur, Ternium, Timken, Thermo Fischer, TopSolid, TRB, Unimetal, Usiminas, Vale, Vamtec, Vesuvius, Villares Metals, Wallonia.be (ADI – Industrial Services, John Cockerill Hydrogen, BorderSystem, Datanet International, Synthetis e PEPITe), White Martins, e Yellow Solution.Special support: CNPq. Institutional support: Abal, Abendi, Abifa, AIST, AIST Mena, Alacero, CBCA, Ibram, Icz, Instituto Aço Brasil, CIMM, Ind4.0.