According to Japan’s Nikkei Business Daily, Nippon Steel Corporation and Tata Steel Ltd. began talks to build an automotive steel plant in Mexico, including a blast furnace.
Tata Steel's Chief Executive Hemant Nerurkar approached Japan's largest steelmaker about kicking off talks for an alliance on the upstream portion of steel production, in addition to a previously existing accord on downstream operations, the Daily reported October 5.
As SteelOrbis previously reported, Nippon Steel has also teamed up with Luxembourg-based Ternium SA to build an auto steel sheet plant on the outskirts of the eastern Mexican city of Monterrey, costing US $300 million, or about 25 billion yen, with operations scheduled to begin in 2013.
Ternium SA will hold a 51 percent interest in the venture, with Nippon Steel taking 49 percent.