Austrian specialty steelmaker Voestalpine wants to follow big carmakers into Mexico, where it plans to expand in the next two years, Chief Executive Wolfgang Eder said.

Carmakers such as BMW, Daimler and Renault-Nissan are planning to increase production in Mexico, which has drawn Voestalpine's rival ThyssenKrupp to the country.

"(Mexico) is the new Detroit for the auto industry," Eder told reporters late on Wednesday.

"I expect that we will have realised one or the other project there in the next 12 to 18 months. It's not decided yet whether it will be a greenfield project or an acquisition."

Eder reiterated Voestalpine's target of tripling its revenue in North America to 3 billion ($3.39 billion) euros by 2020.

It is also building a sponge-iron plant in the U.S. state of Texas that is due to be finished by year-end.

Eder said the plant would in the first instance serve European premium carmakers and later also U.S. carmakers GM and Ford, adding that he expected the plant's revenue to reach more than 100 million euros by 2020.

 

reuters.com

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