Grupo Aceroteca, a Nuevo León-based steel distributor and processor, will build and equip a steel service center in the immediate vicinity Tesla, Inc.’s gigafactory that will be built in the northern state of Nuevo León. The objective is to strengthen sales of 3,500 metric tons (mt) of steel per month, company founder Héctor Morales told SteelOrbis.
“In Santa Catarina we are building a warehouse with almost 7,000 square meters. It will be a complete service center with a line for cutting tapes and sheets. We are going to focus on the industrial area,” Morales said in a telephone interview with SteelOrbis.
“The first objective is to sell around 3,500 mt per month with the service center in Santa Catarina. We are currently selling between 2,000 and 2,500 tons a month,” he said.
Grupo Aceroteca told SteelOrbis last June that it will invest in the construction of a steel processing center in the United States, in Seguin Texas, a city located 60 miles south of the Tesla plant in Austin, Texas.
The company began operations more than 20 years ago, among its various businesses it included Galvaprime, a steel processor and distributor in Santa Catarina, Nuevo León. However, eight years ago, Aceroteca left that company by selling its shareholding to its partner.
Aceroteca continued to sell and process steel but without its own facilities. It works through local maquiladoras and currently sells between 2,000 mt and 2,500 mt per month.
“If we do not have our own service centers with a warehouse in 2022, in 2024 we will have the warehouse in Seguin, Texas and the service center in Santa Catarina. In Seguin, the investment is $10 million in partnership with Mexican investors and in Santa Catarina it is $6.0 million through a credit from the development bank,” said Morales.
The company's main goal is to focus more on value-added materials, mainly cold rolled (CRC) and coated steel.