Mexico’s Altos Hornos de México (Ahmsa), has shut down its heavy profile steel plant indefinitely. The company has relocated around 350 workers from this plant located in Coahuila, Mexico to its other locations and departments, according to Gerardo Mario Mireles Castillo, secretary of section 147 of the union that represents the workers of that plant.
Ahmsa did not respond to Davis Index’s queries on whether it would open again or if the company planned to sell it. However, the steelmaker recently denied Mexican media reports that it planned to sell the plant to an international steelmaker.
Moreover, on Friday, Gov. Miguel Riquelme of Coahulia said that he was discussing the issue with the Federal Government and Ahmsa to ensure that the economy of the region was not impacted by the plant’s closure
In January, Ahmsa shut down its blast furnace #6 in plant one due to bad market conditions, and only uses blast furnace #5 in plant two to produce steel. The Coahulia plant supplied steel products to feed the construction industry’s demand.
Ahmsa produced 4.52mn mt of crude steel in 2018, but in 2019 production fell 40pc, according to a spokesperson at Ahmsa.