The company said it now expects to spend US$3.5 billion on a new slab mill and value-added coil processing lines that are being built at its Pesquería facility. The revision represents a 9% increase to the previous estimate of US$3.2 billion. 

Ternium chief executive officer Máximo Vedoya told investors during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call on Wednesday that the projects are firmly underway. 

He said the company expects to start the first of the value-add lines, a 550,000-ton pickling line, during the second half of this year. 

“By the end of next year, we plan to start up the new galvanizing line followed shortly by the cold rolling mill. The ramp-up of all these new lines should enable us to gradually increase the value added of our shipment in Mexico,” he said.