The Mexican unit of the global steel giant, ArcelorMittal, experienced some technical problems in the restart of operations of its blast furnace in the western city of Lázaro Cárdenas, in the Mexican state of Michoacán, which stopped production since May 24 due to an illegal blockade by its workers, people familiar with the process informed SteelOrbis. The restart was expected on October 16.
“The production of the blast furnace could not be restarted due to technical complications, which will be resolved soon,” said the source of information.
Prior to the blockade by the Miners' Union, the blast furnace at Lázaro Cárdenas had a production capacity of 2.4 million metric tons (mt) per year (6,575 mt per day, on average). However, the company reported that the restart of operations would be with a capacity of 1.5 million mt (4,110 mt per day).
Although this steel is the basic input for the production of long steels, particularly rebar, some distributors have commented to SteelOrbis that the union blockade also affected the production of hot-rolled sheet coils, which ArcelorMittal carries out in Lázaro Cárdenas.
“There is a shortage of hot-rolled steel coils (HRC) in the Mexican market. It has been since the blockade suffered by ArcelorMittal,” a steel trader and distributor for multinational companies with operations in Mexico told SteelOrbis.
The words of the large distributor are confirmed by the most recent public data from Canacero. In the May-August period, HRC consumption in Mexico decreased by 20.4 percent or 365,000 mt, going from 1.79 million mt in that period of 2023 to 1.42 million mt this year.
HRC production by the three producers (Ternium, ArcelorMittal and Tyasa), in the same period, decreased by 15.0 percent, going from 1.14 million mt to 966,000 mt in the reference period. That is, 170,000 mt were not produced.