History of Volta Redonda

This situation would be reversed in 1941, when the cycle of industrialization of Volta Redonda began. Chosen as site for installing the Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN) steel mill in the middle of World War II, it marked the base of Brazilian industrialization. Laborers from diverse regions of the country came to Volta Redonda to work in the mill. When it opened in 1946, it was the first steel mill in South America.

A heavily subsidized symbol of national pride, the Volta Redonda mill embodied the import substitution industrial policies that prevailed in Latin American economies from World War II until the Latin American debt crisis in the 1980s. Since its 1993 privatization, however, the mill — now known as the Presidente Vargas Steelworks — has transcended its dirigiste origins to become one of the world's most efficient steel production facilities - due to this large production of steel and minerals, the city is globally nicknamed "Cidade do Aço" (literal Portuguese for "City of Steel")