Mexican long steel pricing in the countries’ North Region continued higher this past week, as an ongoing outage at ArcelorMittal’s rebar facility in Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico, continues to reduce available supplies, market insiders told SteelOrbis.
As previously reported by SteelOrbis, the long steel production facility was temporarily shut down August 4 following critical equipment failures linked to safety concerns, the company said. While the company has yet to announce an expected restart date for the plant, market insiders told SteelOrbis the damage to the facility’s turbines as a result of electrical failures, could keep the unit off line for 5-6 months. ArcelorMittal is the largest steel company in Mexico, having produced 3.9 million mt of crude steel and 4.5 mt of iron ore during 2023.
Mexican rebar delivered to Mexico’s North Region is assessed at MXN 14,141.77/mt ($839/mt), up about MXN 371.66/mt ($22/mt) from one week earlier.
“All of their long steel output has been cut,” remarked one Mexican insider to SteelOrbis. “But, I have heard that they are planning on buying billet to keep producing, but there aren’t that many options available for the billet.” he added. “Right now billet volume is limited domestically, so the rest of the supply would need to be imported and could take several weeks to arrive.”
He continued, “The target price announced by ArcelorMittal is still ($880/mt), however, we are still looking for opportunities in Canada, the US, and Latin America, and to capitalize on Mittal’s absence in Mexico,” the insider added. “All of this should help us boost prices in the domestic market.”
In the Mexican wire rod market, pricing is discussed at MXN 14,216.10/mt ($843/mt), flat.
“We are aiming at MXN 14,829.34/mt ($880/mt) for wire rod, based on Mittal’s offer, though right now wire rod pricing is a little higher than rebar,” he said.
Mexican steel delivered to the US currently is not competitive with domestic producers, since Section 232 steel tariffs between the US, Mexico and Canada were doubled on June 4 to 50 percent, though many industry insiders expect the tariffs to be reduced soon.
$1 = MXN 18.58