OREANDA-NEWS. September 11, 2014. ArcelorMittal Las Truchas in Mexico recently supplied more than 192,000 tonnes of rebar for the Panama Canal expansion project.

The news comes a few weeks after the Panama Canal celebrated its 100th birthday, on 15 August.

In total, more than 242,000 tonnes of steels from our Las Truchas plant have been provided for the project since the contract was signed with customer Grupos Unidos por el Canal (GUPC) in October 2010. The sales and logistics part of the supply is being handled by our ArcelorMittal Projects team in the Netherlands, who serve as the first point of contact for the customer. ArcelorMittal Projects, part of Distribution Solutions, is specialised in the management of large projects for the construction, oil and gas, as well as foundation solutions markets.

The latest rebar, supplied in grade 60 and grade 75, will be used in the construction of the third set of locks. The design and construction of the third set of locks is the key part of the Panama Canal expansion project which aims to provide a transit system for Post-Panamax ships, through the construction of locks on the Atlantic and Pacific sides of the channel. The new locks will increase the capacity of the Panama Canal to meet existing and future demands of maritime traffic.

ArcelorMittal won the bid thanks to our Mexican operations’ capacity to produce longer steels, allowing the customer to optimise the use and produce less scrap. Another determining factor was the superior quality of the grades compared with competitors, resulting in lower bar diameters and hence a lower volume.

The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) and our customer have recently announced that they are looking into the construction and design of the fourth set of locks for the canal, which will require another 121,200 tonnes of steel products -  the equivalent of twelve Eiffel Towers.