Ternium Colombia has commissioned its new steel plant located in Palmar de Varela, Atlántico at an investment of more than $75.8mn.The plant will produce 520,000mt of steel rods and compact rolls per year for the construction and infrastructure industries and will have a capacity of 720,000mt of steel products, Maximo Vedoya, chief executive officer at Ternium said during the inauguration of the plant on Feb 18.
The president of Colombia, Iván Duque Márquez, and members of the Colombian Steel Committee attended the inauguration of the plant. The new plant is built on an area of 30,000sqm and will create 300 new jobs. Duque noted that the plant will produce 30pc of all steel rods made in Colombia, cutting imports from China and Turkey.
Colombia’s steel industry has complained over the last months that imports of steel products are increasing. The South American country consumes 1.5mn mt of steel products per year, of this amount, about 1mn mt is produced in the country and 500,000mt of products are imported. Colombia’s steel output fell by 15.5pc to 1.12mn mt in 2020, from 1.33mn mt produced in 2019, according to the World Steel Association.
In November 2020 alone, the South American country imported 69,410mt of long steel products, up by 22.7pc from 56,551mt in the same month in 2019, according to data from the Colombian Steel Committee. The country recycles about 200,000mt per year of scrap to produce structural steel products, Vedoya added.