The contract with Nucor-JFE Steel Mexico, a 50-50 joint venture established by America’s Nucor Corp. and Japan’s JFE Steel Corp., provides for a continuous hot-dip galvanizing line and a recoiling line. Estimated to cost US$270 million, the facility will be capable of annually producing 400,000 tons of galvanized sheet for the Mexican auto market.

SMS said the galvanizing line is being designed to process strips in thicknesses of between 0.4 and 2.6 mm and in widths of between 800 and 1,880 mm. The line’s process section will be able to operate at speeds of up to 180 m/minute, but the entry and exit sections will operate at speeds of up to 280 m/minute.

The line will include an entry section with two uncoilers, a welding machine, an entry strip accumulator, a cleaning section, a Drever International radiant tube furnace, a galvanizing section with zinc pot, an intermediate accumulator, a skin pass mill, a vertical roll coater system and the exit accumulator.

The order also includes the recoiling and inspection line. The line features pay-off reel, welding machine, a side trimmer, inspection station, oiling machine, a cut-to-length shear and an upcoiler, SMS said.

The facility is to be put into service sometime in the second half of 2019.