Mexico’s biggest steelmaker, Altos Hornos de México (Ahmsa) and China’s Beijing Shougang International Engineering Technology, will invest $330mn to develop a coke plant in Monclova, Coahuila in Mexico.
The new plant, which will have a design capacity to produce 1.2mn tonnes (1.2mn mt) of coke per year, will expand the processing capacity of metallurgical coal to boost steel production.
Construction of the new facility will start in Q2 of 2020 and is scheduled for completion over the next two years.
About 80pc of the investment to develop this plant will be financed by the Chinese company through the Sinesure bank, a statement by Ahmsa said.
The Mimosa unit generates mainly metallurgical coal for the production of steel in Ahmsa and annually extracts about 4mn mt of coal.
Ahmsa produced 4.52mn mt of crude steel in 2018.