Japanese steelmaker JFE Holdings said this week it will stick with its plan to build a mill in Mexico in partnership with US-based steel producer Nucor, despite growing criticism from Donald Trump over US companies investing in Mexico.
JFE said it is attentively looking at the US foreign trade policy after Trump said the country could leave the NAFTA trade bloc, in addition to suggesting a 20 percent duty on all Mexican imports to pay for his promised border wall.
Shinichi Okada, executive VP at JFE, said the company has already begun procuring construction materials for the $270 million mill, and construction is expected to start later this year with production coming online by H2 2019. The mill is expected to produce 400,000 mt/year of galvanized sheet.