Ternium reports Q4 loss but maintains 2024 profitability

Luxembourg-based Ternium, which operates steelmaking facilities in South America, Mexico and the United States, has reported an adjusted net loss of $71 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, with the company citing in part a downturn in the Mexican steel market.

Despite the unfavorable conditions in late 2024 and ongoing accounting effects from litigation tied to Ternium’s 2012 acquisition of Usiminas, Ternium has reported net income of $584 million for all of 2024. That figure is down by 72 percent compared with the more than $2 billion earned in 2023.

“The Mexican steel market experienced a downturn in the fourth quarter of 2024, due to year-end seasonality and a weakened commercial market,” says Ternium.

Adds the steelmaker, “This weakness was partly influenced by uncertainties arising from the change in government administration in both Mexico and the United States, as well as heightened rhetoric from the U.S. on trade measures.”

That rhetoric has subsequently turned into executive order tariffs in the U.S., which has merited attention in the outlook section of Ternium’s comments accompanying its 2024 earnings report.

“The recent surge in U.S. trade action is creating significant uncertainty in global markets,” writes Ternium. “Within Ternium’s markets, the company anticipates that this development will continue to affect Mexico’s apparent steel demand until a definitive understanding of the final measures is achieved.”

Despite the trade turbulence along the U.S.-Mexico border, Ternium says it “expects a slight sequential increase in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for the first quarter of 2025, driven by improved margins and shipments, with volume recovery in Brazil and stable shipments in Mexico and Argentina.”

Regarding steel pricing, Ternium adds, “The company anticipates that cost per ton will decrease in the first quarter due to the gradual consumption of lower priced slabs and raw material inventories, while a sequentially lower revenue per ton is expected to partially offset this cost reduction.”

Ternium describes itself as the maker of “a wide range of steel products [with] 18 production centers in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, the United States, Guatemala and Mexico.”

In its 2023 Sustainability Report, Ternium says it “recycled 2.9 million tons of steel scrap to produce new steel” in 2023.