Guatemala’s galvanizing industry is among the most affected in Central America due to unfair price competition, said Miguel Giorgis, President of Guatemala’s Union of Metallurgy Industries, to local media this week.
The Guatemalan galvanizing industry is composed of three companies and generates more than 400 direct jobs and 2,500 indirect Jobs, which are at risk of being lost. To combat this trend, Ternium Central America made a formal antidumping application to the Ministry of Economy in December because, according to its estimates, operating profit of the company was reduced 53 percent (2013 vs. 2010) and production has been halved due to import competition.
"Low prices from China may seem attractive in the short term, but there is the potential to destroy an industry of strategic importance for the country,” Giorgis said. “We have a serious problem brewing just around the corner. We have lost the ability to add value to our resources and there are fewer sources of employment and opportunities for skilled labor.”