For several days, groups of protesting workers blocked the entrances to the Altos Hornos de México (AHMSA) steel mill in Monclova, Coahuila, which caused "irreversible damage to the coker" of one of the company's blast furnaces, for which it will need to be reactivated. Because reactivation would require several months and millions of dollars, it is unfeasible, according to experts consulted by SteelOrbis.
“We no longer have coke, nor iron ore,” AHMSA spokesman Francisco Orduña told SteelOrbis in a brief telephone interview.
"People related to Napoleón Gómez Urrutia blocked the company's entrance and prevented the entry of liquefied gas trucks to keep the coker at temperature, for which it suffered irreparable damage," he added.
Napoleón Gómez Urrutia is a mining union leader (National Union of Mining, Metallurgical, Steel and Similar Workers of the Mexican Republic) who has no employment relationship with AHMSA. He is an ally of the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and is a Senator of the Republic for the political party that López Obrador founded. He is also president of the Labor and Social Welfare Commission in the Chamber of Senators.
“Gómez Urrutia's people were the ones who also took the access roads to (the) Hercules mine. The damage there was that the main source of iron for AHMSA was flooded. We no longer have coke or iron ore,” Orduña said.
The mineral mine was a source of income for AHMSA to pay the wages and salaries of its employees. Without that, workers' pay was suspended.
Industry specialists consulted by SteelOrbis comment that the coker in the production process for integrated steel companies, such as AHMSA, is of vital importance. In the event of a sudden cooling, the special linings of the furnace fracture and are useless.
Specialists comment that AHMSA's project to restart steel production, stopped since the beginning of the year, due to the insolvency that generated paying a reparation agreement to the state-owned Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) for more than $100 million, is becoming unfeasible.
A specialist consulted by SteelOrbis said that without iron ore or metallurgical coke, AHMSA's productive return is complicated. In addition, he said, "the process of reviving AHMSA enters a phase of necrosis because it seems that the federal government is not willing to accept the debt restructuring proposed by Argentem."
Orduña commented that the company has filed complaints for the damage to the mine and the coking plant, but the authorities have not taken the necessary actions.