A new Dodgy Deal profile from BankTrack reveals serious human rights, climate, and nature impacts linked to a green loan for steel decarbonisation. In August 2025, seven banks – Natixis, BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole CIB, Citigroup, Intesa Sanpaolo, JPMorgan and Mediobanca – gave Luxembourg-based steel company Ternium a $1.25 billion green loan for the construction of a gas-based steel plant in Pesquería, Nuevo León, Mexico. (1)

Ternium Mexico claims the new steel plant is sustainable  because it will run on gas instead of coal. (2) However, if constructed, this plant would contribute to existing air pollution in Monterrey, which the Sheinbaum administration has recently committed to tackle. (3) Additionally, the project will expand gas infrastructure in Mexico, and risks locking in fossil-fuel usage in the steel industry. 

While all banks participating in the loan have restrictions on gas finance, they do not apply to the steel sector. It is also unclear whether or not their green finance framework has any provisions for air pollution. Together with BankTrack and Fair Steel Coalition, seven local organisations in Nuevo León wrote to the banks in early April to ask questions about the environmental & public health conditions of the loan. (4) Two banks have responded.

BankTrack, Fair Steel Coalition and partners are calling on the banks involved to publish their green finance criteria; monitor the environmental and social impacts of their loan with local communities; and for banks to exclude steel production using gas from their sustainable financing frameworks.

A resident of Nuevo León said (5): “In Nuevo León, we refuse to keep being sacrificed by industries that pollute our air and waterways and exploit our aquifers. Thousands of people die every year in Monterrey due to poor air quality – to which Ternium’s several plants in the metropolitan area greatly contribute – and for decades, people have demanded they take responsibility.”

Diana Figueroa, coordinator of the Fair Steel Coalition said: “This is a clear example of why the banking and finance sectors must scrutinize the real-world impacts of their credits and investments. Human rights due diligence and decarbonization efforts must go hand in hand to avoid further harm. In this case, the people of Nuevo León are the ones paying the 'interest' on a loan that fails to deliver green climate solutions, while instead increasing health and environmental risks.” 

Quentin Aubineau, banks and steel campaigner at BankTrack said: “Gas is not green, regardless of its end use. Banks financing the steel transition must recognise the serious risks for people and planet that Ternium’s Pesqueria project poses, and adopt far more ambitious sustainable finance frameworks to support the just transition of the steel sector.”

Editors notes: 

1. Sustainable Loan: Ternium Mexico's US$1.25bn green loan, IFR, 17 December 2025

2. New Steel Slab Mill in Pesquería, Nuevo León, Mexico, Ternium 

3. Mexico moves to combat pollution following Guardian investigations, The Guardian, 1 February 2026 

4.  A sample of the letter can be found here.

5.  This individual asked not to be named for security reasons.