Final Thoughts

I am traveling this week. I have been in Monterrey, Mexico, where I visited the Roberto Rocca Industrial School in Pesqueria in the state of Nuevo Leon (just outside of Monterrey). I also visited the Ternium Industrial Center, which is already a major rolling facility and where Ternium is expanding capacities dramatically so the mill can provide the full range of flat rolled and prepainted products to the Mexican markets.

I have to say I was impressed with the social commitment Ternium has made to the community where the mill is located. The dropout rate for Pesqueria was 80 percent, according to the school’s director, Jose Efren Castillo. The school has 370+ students, all of whom receive scholorships covering up to 99 percent of the tuition so they can attend a school none of their parents could ever afford. With the dropout rate of the general population around them so high, it is very impressive that the school will graduate 124 of the original 127 students in the school’s first class this July.