Structural seamless steel tubes from Vallourec’s Brazilian mill in Belo Horizonte equipped nine stadiums – including five of the twelve stadiums used to host official matches during the FIFA World Cup, and four others used as training centres during the tournament.
The high-performance tubes, which allow the construction of unsupported wide-span structures, were used to build the stadiums’ roof and related equipment of Magalhães Pinto Stadium (Mineirão) in Belo Horizonte, the Arena Corinthians Stadium (Itaquerão) in São Paulo, the Jornalista Mário Filho Stadium (Maracanã) in Rio de Janeiro, the Mané Garrincha Stadium in Brasília, and the José Pinheiro Borda Stadium (Beira Rio) in Porto Alegre.
Vallourec designed an innovative roof of approximately 13,000m2 with special corrosion-resistant steel tubes for Belo Horizonte’s Mineirão stadium, Brazil’s third largest football stadium with its 62,000 seats. For the Maracanã stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Vallourec supplied the tubes installed in the stadium’s maintenance catwalk. Vallourec also supplied all the 4000 tons of tubes for the roof of Arena Corinthians, in São Paulo, where the opening game of the 2014 FIFA World Cup was held.
