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Mexican secondary aluminum smelter Fracsa Alloys will double its production by early next year, according to company president Francisco Ruiz. In a visit to Fracsa's plant in Queretaro Tuesday, Ruiz showed S&P Global Platts the areas where a 20 mt/hour continuous caster expected to arrive in September, a 50 mt/load tilting rotary furnace, and an 8 mt/hour reverberatory furnace will be installed. The charges will be delivered to the company on August 14.

The equipment is slated to start running between October and November, except for the reverberatory furnace, which will be online in March 2017.

"By this time, we believe we will be able produce 10,000 mt/month of alloy," said Ruiz. Currently, Fracsa produces around 5,000 mt/month, using virtually all its installed capacity.

The expansion will be focused on supplying Mexico's increasing demand for A380. "There is an unmet demand, and many companies on the buying side such as diecasters and automakers are undertaking projects that will raise their A380 demand yet further," said Ruiz. "We want to show them we can be strategic partners."

Currently, Mexico imports about half of the aluminum alloy it consumes because domestic supply does not meet demand.

After completing the expansion, Fracsa plans to build a second plant in Toluca, but the timeframe for this project was not revealed.