Mexican HRC prices increased $6/mt ex-mill in the last two weeks to reach $503/mt ex-mill
This slight recovery is in line with international markets, but in the context of government measures to protect domestic production of imports at dumping prices.
This week, the Mexican government announced tariff quotas for hot rolled steel from three countries and additional measures such as speeding up anti-dumping investigations in the Unit of International Trade Practices.
These measures have received unfavorable reactions from consumer sectors such as auto parts and automotive clusters, who will require the government to list what other countries could they import from, because domestic producers are unable to meet the demand for annual output of 3.3 million vehicles.
However, steel industry sources say automotive manufacturing in the country does not equal a great benefit to local producers, since in many cases they operate with their own chain of external suppliers.