Ternium represents almost 30% of Brazil‘s exports to Mexico, highlighted Máximo Vedoya, the company‘s CEO.
“We are a company that tries to integrate the value chain, that one part is a North American value chain, but also includes Brazil, and our company exports almost 30% of what Brazil exports to Mexico,” said Vedoya.
Steel sales
Brazil’s merchandise exports to Mexico were $8.6 billion in 2023 and Mexico’s sales to Brazil were $5.5 billion in 2023, according to data from Brazil’s Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade.
The offshoring of manufacturing capacity is a key driver of economic activity in the region. Mexico offers an attractive combination of geographic proximity, skilled labor and a conducive business environment. All of these, from Ternium’s perspective, contribute to increasing supply chain resilience.
Participating in the Mexico-Brazil Business Forum in Mexico City, Vedoya highlighted the amount of exports from Ternium’s Rio de Janeiro plant to Mexico, where they are transformed and form part of finished products that are consumed in the Mexican market itself or exported to third countries.
Ternium
This company supplies advanced steel products to a wide range of manufacturing industries and the construction sector.
“There is a possibility of increasing this much more, there is a possibility of working in a value chain that is Latin American, together with North American,” said Vedoya.
On the one hand, at the event, Vedoya referred that the new Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has reiterated that she is going to industrialize Mexico more, where industry represented 32.2% of the national GDP in 2023 and the price of natural gas is about $2 per million BTU.
On the other hand, she added, Brazil has had “a very violent fall” in the industry’s share of GDP, with 22.8% in 2023, and with a lower competitiveness derived from the fact that the price of natural gas is about $16 per million BTU.
Investments
Ternium’s expansion plan in Mexico includes a steel plant, a cold rolling mill, a hot dip galvanizing line, a push-pull pickling line and finishing lines in Pesquería, and new port facilities for raw material handling.
According to the company, these facilities are expected to begin operating gradually during 2024, 2025 and 2026 at a total cost of approximately US$3.5 billion.