Ternium to build NorthAm EAF

Steelmaker Ternium will build a new electric arc furnace (EAF) slab mill in North America as the company moves to create more steel supply into the region for its Mexican rerolling mill to meet trade agreement requirements.

The EAF mill will have a production capacity of 2.6mn metric tonnes (t)/yr of slabs, and will include a 2.1mn t/yr direct reduced iron (DRI) plant and a port facility for raw material intake. The mill will be built "in the USMCA region," — which refers to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement for energy policies — with a final location yet to be chosen, the company said today. The project will cost $2.2bn and is expected to be completed in the first half of 2026.

The new facility will support Ternium's 4.4mn t/yr Pesqueria, Mexico, hot rolling mill and had previously been mentioned as a possibility to meet melted-and-poured requirements under the USMCA. Those requirements will be implemented in 2027.

Also at Pesquira, a 550,000 t/yr pickling line and finishing lines are expected to be commissioned in mid-2024. Pesqueria will also have a 1.6mn t/yr cold rolling mill and 600,000 t/yr hot-dip galvanizing line built, with both expected to come on line by the end of 2025.

By Marialuisa Rincon