Steel Mills

ArcelorMittal Mexico Makes First Coil from New Hot Strip Mill

Written by Michael Cowden

December 15, 2021

ArcelorMittal Mexico has made the first coil from the new hot strip at its steelmaking complex in Lazaro Cardenas, a port city in Mexico’s Michoacan province.

Company spokespeople did not respond to requests for confirmation from Steel Market Update. But the moment was celebrated on social media by ArcelorMittal employees and executives.

One example: “Congratulations to ArcelorMittal Mexico. Production of the first coil from our new hot strip mill in. Amazing work,” Olivier Vassart, chief executive officer of the Luxembourg-based steelmaker’s Steligence® division, wrote in a LinkedIn post.

The development was not unexpected. ArcelorMittal executives said during an earnings conference call last month that the new hot strip mill, announced four years ago, was nearing completion and that the project would be finished before the end of the year.

The new hot strip mill will give ArcelorMittal additional capacity of approximately 2.75 million short tons (2.5 million metric tonnes). It is one of a host of sheet capacity expansions taking place in North America.

Details on that new capacity can be found on SMU’s new capacity table. The more than 20 million tons of new capacity displayed there should be read in conjunction with SMU’s blast furnace status table. The latter provides some important context: how much integrated capacity has been idled over the last decade.

By the way, here is that first coil:

 ArcelorMittal HSM first coil

By Michael Cowden, Michael@SteelMarketUpdate.com

Michael Cowden

Michael Cowden is editor-in-chief for Steel Market Update. Cowden has covered the steel industry since 2007. He specializes in flat-rolled steel but has also reported on steel long products, steel pipe and tube, and aluminum. Before joining SMU, Cowden held reporting jobs at Fastmarkets AMM in Chicago, the Associated Press in Pittsburgh, and the Cambodia Daily in Phnom Penh. He has also worked as a copy editor and in marketing at the University of Chicago Press. Cowden has a BA in English from the University of Chicago and an MSJ journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Contact him at michael@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-759-7872.

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