Novo desenvolvimentismo brasileiro: a atuação da Ternium CSA – Companhia Siderúrgica do Atlântico, em Santa Cruz, Rio De Janeiro – RJ

Abstract

During a period in which the brazilian political and economic context was marked by called new developmentalism, the municipal, state and federal governments, together with the national and international business community, built an immense industrial pole and a port complex for the export of mineral commodities and steel products in the Rio de Janeiro state’s west end metropolitan area (OLIVEIRA, 2015). The first venture of this industrial center in this recent period was Companhia Siderúrgica do Atlântico - Ternium CSA. The Industrial District of Santa Cruz, where the company was established, was inaugurated in the 1970's, as a consequence of projects that based national policy on industry and development. The CSA began its work in this industrial district in 2005, entering into dynamic operation in 2010 and joining the other companies that operate in the region. Thus, the central objective of this research is to understand the performance of Ternium CSA - Companhia Siderúrgica do Atlântico and its implications in Santa Cruz, Rio de Janeiro-RJ. This geographic exercise, especially from the perspective of economic geography and industry and its connections with political economy and ecology, was methodologically structured from the interpretation of the new brazilian developmentalism, pointed out by Mercadante (2010), as a proposal of new hope in the construction of development in the space studied; in addition to having interpretations on the facets of the technical phenomenon in its entirety, treated by Santos (1996; 2000) and Santos and Silveira (2001), which are indispensable for operationalization and deepening in the geographic analysis present here. Thus, the diagnosis of CSA's performance reveals contradictions of the new brazilian developmentalism, when they promise development with socio-environmental concerns and deliver conflicts between entrepreneurs and local residents, violations in the process of environmental licensing, health complications, flooding of houses, atmospheric pollution, a precarious and excluding educational system, in addition to so many problems experienced, at the metropolitan edge, resulting from industrial activities driven by this development model. The analysis of the new brazilian development model represented, above all, the opportunity to evaluate the very concept of development that, even under the sign of progressive governments, remained imprisoned to the interests of capital, not breaking the strong links of a model deeply segregating and based on economic growth. The study of Ternium's work allowed us to interpret, in the last instance, brazilian capitalism itself and its nuances and insertions into the globalized economy. Therefore, it was not up to us to make a judgment of specific governmental policies, but to point out contradictions and limits of the "company hope" model, of the "redemptive industry", contributing, as we see it, to put into question the positive and automatic evaluation that we have in relation to the factories, generally seen, for their actions based on technical-scientific rationality, very high productivity and circulation of goods, as precursors of the happiness and well-being of the populations directly impacted by their activities