Brazil's BNDES calls for steel mergers - report

SAO PAULO, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Brazil state development bank BNDES may support consolidation in the country's steel industry as the government looks to create "global champions," the bank's president Luciano Coutinho told Valor Economico newspaper in an interview published on Tuesday.

BNDES has helped fund a series of major deals in Brazil the past year, including the merger of food processors Sadia and Perdigao that created Brasil Foods PRGA3.SA and the Aracruz ARCZ6.SA-Votorantim Celulose VCPA4.SA transaction that formed pulp and paper giant Fibria.

The bank has also been key in funding overseas takeovers carried out by JBS (JBSS3.SA), the world's largest meat producer.

"Brazilian steelmakers owe the country a more assertive stance," Coutinho told Valor. "The steel sector is a large exporter, but it hasn't produced, until now, companies on an international scale."

Coutinho called on Brazilian steel companies to take on "a new strategic stance" and said there were opportunities abroad, particularly in the embattled U.S. steel industry. (Reporting by Elzio Barreto, editing by Dave Zimmerman)