Steel Mills

Canacero urges end to strike at ArcelorMittal Mexico

June 12, 2024

Canacero has weighed in on the workers’ protest at ArcelorMittal Mexico’s Lazaro Cardenas mill, urging a quick resolution to the dispute.

Since May 24, Sindicato Minero union members have been protesting profit-sharing payments, blocking the entrances to the company’s mill and mine. ArcelorMittal has said the strike is illegal as it began before the union served the company a sanctioned strike warning. Official notice of a strike coming on June 11 came after workers had already begun demonstrating.

Mexico’s steel association Canacero condemned the strike, noting that it lacks legal basis.

The plant’s operations have been seriously affected, and its future compromised, Canacero said in a statement on June 10. The steelmaker was forced to shut down the mill’s blast furnace and, as of June 5, had already reported a production loss of 100,000 tons.

The mill has an annual steelmaking capacity of approximately 5.3 million metric tons (mt) (5.84 million short tons), including 2.5 million mt of flat steel, 1.8 million mt of long products, and 1 million mt of slabs.

SMU has been unable to reach ArcelorMittal Mexico, and the company has made no public statement since last week.

Mexico City-based Canacero said this is an important time for Mexico as a whole. It highlighted the current nearshoring trend benefiting the country and the need for all parties to maintain an environment attractive to investors.

It called on ArcelorMittal and the union to quickly come to a resolution.

The unionized members of the Lazaro Cardenas mill on Michoacan’s west coast are not new to protesting. In 2022, workers went on strike, also over profit sharing. Workers took to the picket lines for two weeks in 2016, objecting to job cuts and idled operations. And in 2009, a month-long strike took place over wages and benefits.

Laura Miller

Laura Miller is a reporter and editor for Steel Market Update. She has held a variety of positions within the steel industry since 2007, including reporting and editing for Steel Business Briefing/Platts, the Association for Iron and Steel Technology, and Kallanish Commodities, as well as marketing for what was then known as ThyssenKrupp Steel USA (now AM/NS Calvert). After a five-year hiatus working across other industries, she returned to steel in 2021 and has covered the flat rolled, tubular, and trade areas of the industry. She is a member of the Association of Women in the Metal Industries and a past-president of the AWMI Pittsburgh Chapter. She holds a BA in Latin American Studies from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. She can be reached at laura@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-759-7869.