Fundidora 5.09

Blast Furnace No. 1 was one of the most remarkable pieces of equipment due to its
highly technical elements. It was installed in Fundidora Monterrey during the plant's
early years. The complex pertained to the latest generation in siderurgical technology
and was ideally suited to national requirements,
for its production capacity exceeded the domestic market demands at that time.
Both, the continuous demand for steel and unmet needs, led company management
to install a new pig iron producing furnace, and so, the company's last and tallest
Furnace - and the most modern in Latin America - was built: Blast Furnace
No. 3. It was one of the most important pieces of equipment in the siderurgical
plant's history, due to the fact that it was a technological breakthrough in its time.
Fully automated Blast Furnace No. 3 boosted pig iron production and set Monterrey
back as the first steel producer in Latin America in the sixties.
After company closure these furnaces were about to be dismantled, but remained
virtually intact, although some pieces of equipment were sold to be reutilized at
other Mexican plants. Nowadays, Fundidora Monterrey's Blast Furnaces one and
three are the only blast furnaces in Latin America to be preserved for cultural
purposes. They have been declared a National Heritage of Mexico, as a symbol
of historical industrial heritage - both domestically and internationally -
because they were instrumental in turning Monterrey into one of the most
important industrial cities in the American continent in early Twentieth Century,
and they represent the emergence of modern Mexico and fueled the country's
industrial growth.