Nippon Steel invests US$71.3 million to set up plant in Guanajuato

GUANAJUATO - As part of the investment attraction tour of Asia by the governor of Guanajuato, Diego Sinhue Rodríguez Vallejo, the governor announced a new investment by the Japanese automotive company, Nippon Steel, which will arrive in the municipality of Apaseo El Grande, where the Toyota assembly plant is located.

The investment of US$71.3 million is aimed at the installation of a new plant for the production of automotive steel components, which will create 200 new direct jobs.

Diego Sinhue Rodríguez Vallejo thanked the company's executives for their welcome and, above all, for their confidence in the state to bring their production line.

He also emphasized that this initiative represents an important opportunity to strengthen trade relations between Mexico and Japan, as well as to promote the automotive and electromobility industry.

According to Directorio Automotriz, the new plant will produce 120 thousand tons per year of automotive steel sheets for electric vehicles in four production lines (coil and coil slitting). The steel will be used in structural and chassis components.

This would be the group's second plant in the state of Guanajuato. In 2014, Nippon Steel inaugurated a US$30 million plant in the municipality of Silao, where they produce 24 thousand tons of steel pipes for the automotive sector with 370 employees.

This investment is part of Nippon Steel's plan to become one of the largest steel producers in the automotive sector in the world, as in 2023 it announced the purchase of US Steel for US$14.9 billion. Nippon Steel is currently the fourth largest steel manufacturer in the world, and seeks to produce more than 100 million metric tons of steel annually.