Mexico's TYASA building steel plant in Veracruz

Mexican steelmaker TYASA recently began construction on a new steel facility near Orizaba, Veracruz, that will capable of churning out 500,000 tons of sheet steel on behalf of Castrip, a joint venture of Nucor Corporation, BlueScope Steel of Australia and IHI Corporation.

The finished materials will be produced largely to supply the local construction and manufacturing markets.

"We are very pleased to welcome TYASA to the Castrip family of licensees," Castrip President Frank Fisher said. "TYASA has a long history of adapting new technologies to feed its entrepreneurial spirit and fuel its growth. Their proven track record of commercial and technical excellence gives us great confidence that TYASA is the right partner to help exploit and expand the Castrip UCS (ultra-thin cast strip) markets."

Castrip specializes in UCS steel, as well as super-thin, high-strength sheet steel. The new twin roll casting and rolling plant will make use of TYASA's high-efficiency Quantum furnace to create the products. Siemens and IHI will supply additional equipment for the facility.

TYASA will be the first Castrip licensee outside of the U.S., joining two Nucor facilities in Crawfordsville, Indiana and Blytheville, Arkansas.

The facility is expected to be up and running in early 2017.