In an announcement Thursday, the company said the investment will consist of a new hot strip mill and other unspecified improvements to its Lázaro Cárdenas facility and to its Mexican mining operations.

"Construction of the new hot strip mill, alongside the other projects in our investment program, which are geared towards enhancing the efficiency and quality of our operations, will enable us to optimize our asset base and increase the proportion of finished steel products for our domestic customers," said ArcelorMittal Mexico chief executive Victor Cairo. 

"The investments will help us to meet the demand requirements for higher-added value products we expect to see from domestic customers, which today are heavily dependent on imports, while continuing to support ArcelorMittal's NAFTA operations by providing high-quality, semi-finished steel slabs."

ArcelorMittal Mexico said the investment will lift annual capacity by 33%, taking it from about 4 million metric tons to 5.3 million metric tons. Once the project is completed, the operation would be capable of making 2.5 million metric tons of flat steel, 1.8 million metric tons of long steel and 1 million metric tons of  semi-finished slabs.