MONTERREY, Mexico — ArcelorMittal México plans to remodel its Tultitlán facility in central Mexico to process steel products for the domestic market, commercial director Guillermo Rey said at AMM’s 18th annual Mexican Steel Forum in Monterrey.

The plant became a distribution center in 2008, handling about 350,000 tonnes of steel products per year. Before that, it had the capacity to produce up to 200,000 tonnes of rebar annually.

The company is remodeling the unit "in order to compete with steel imports, to be closer to our customers, to have a better response time and deliver our products within 24 or 48 hours (from order placement)," Rey said. He didn’t disclose what types of steel products would be handled at the unit or how much the company’s total processing capacity would increase.

Rey said that Mexican steel association Canacero recently had a meeting "on very good terms" with the recently inaugurated federal government to ask for safeguards against unfair steel imports. "In 60 days, we will have reliable information about what can be done. We are presenting data to the Mexican government—we are in a stage of diagnosis," he said.

ArcelorMittal México is a subsidiary of Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal SA.

A version of this article was first published by AMM sister publication Steel First.