Mexican integrated steelmaker Ahmsa plans to invest $442 million in expanding and increasing its finished steel production capacity, it said.
The company said a deal was inked with Primetals Technologies, in which the UK company will provide Ahmsa with equipment to produce high-quality value finished steel that will be mainly destined for automotive, energy, transportation and special industrial uses.
The contract with Primetals includes the installation of a third cold-rolling facility, which is expected to increase the company's output to 2.3 million mt/year from 800,000 mt/year.
The company will replace its number 3 continuous caster with a new model and increase production capacity to 2.5 million mt/year from 2 million mt/year. It will be able to produce slab with a length of up to 27.5 meters, thicknesses from 8 to 10 inches and width of 74 inches.
The company's hot-rolling area will increase its output to 3.5 million mt/year from 2.8 million mt/year, the steelmaker said.
It will also install a tinplate rolling unit to boost its installed capacity to 450,000 mt/year from 150,000 mt/year.
"We will be able to have the first units in operation within two years, and the new cold rolling mill in two-and-a-half years," Ahmsa CEO Alonso Elizondo Ancira said.
Primetals previously supplied Ahmsa's normalizing line components and was the responsible for the engineering, construction and start-up supervision of the unit at Ahmsa's complex in Monclova, northern Coahuila state, which can process 300,000 mt of steel plate/year.
Ahmsa produces mainly hot- and cold-rolled coil, plate, tinplate, structurals and heavy profiles. It has two steel mills in Monclova and operates its own iron and metallurgical coal mines. Its current nominal production capacity is in excess of 5 million mt/year of crude steel.
