Progress resumes on Taiwanese steel plant: Taiwanese- invested Guang Lian Steel Viet Nam Co Ltd will resume construction this month on a multi-billion-dollar steel plant in the central province of Quang Ngai, the company’s general director, Hsueh Hung Yi, said in a recent meeting with provincial authorities.
The project in the Dung Quat economic Zone had been put on hold for over 18 months due to the global recession.
The deputy director of the Dung Quat Economic Zone Authority, Le Van Dung, confirmed that Guang Lian Steel had solved its financing problems and was preparing to relaunch the project at a budget enlarged from the previous 3 billion USD to 4.5 billion USD.
Guang Lian, established by Taiwanese steel giants Tycoons and E-United, has already begun work on the plant and a workers residence.
With first-phase land clearance nearing completion, 223ha of the eventual 455-ha site has been handed over to Guang Lian.
The plant, when completed, would have a capacity of 3 million tonnes in the first phase and 5 million tonnes in the second phase. It would use blast-furnace technology and would be one of the two largest projects in the economic zone. The first phase was expected to reach full capacity in 2013.
The project was originally licensed to Tycoons in 2006 with a budget of over 1 billion USD. The project costs rose to 3 billion USD in 2007, when Tycoons teamed up with E-United to upgrade the project technology.
Some steel enterprises will carry out new and lucrative projects worth billions of dollars each in the near future.
Japan’s Kobe Steel Company said in a statement on Friday that it had received an investment license to construct a 100 billion yen (more than US$1 billion) iron production facility in Vietnam to tap increasing demand. The fourth-largest Japanese steelmaker said it received the license in late March and would set up a wholly owned unit in Hoang Mai Industrial Zone in the central province of Nghe An this month to carry out the project.
Kobelco Iron Nugget Vietnam Limited Liability Company will produce and market iron nuggets using the next generation ITmk3® iron making process that Kobe Steel developed.
Kobe Steel plans to build four plants with a total capacity of 2.4 million tons per year in two phases. Two plants with be constructed in phase one and a further two in the second phase.
According to Kobe Steel, there are calls for the early establishment of the locally incorporated company, through which the project can be carried out. A detailed feasibility study will be conducted, aiming for first phase construction to begin in January 2011.
Kobe Steel said the products would be sold in Vietnam and to overseas markets. As the ITmk3® Process can produce high-grade iron units from Vietnam’s iron ore and coal, there are high expectations for the project.
Meanwhile, Korean Posco Group, who opened Southeast Asia’s biggest cold rolled steel mill in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau with a capacity of 1.2 million tons per year, plans to produce high quality steel for the shipbuilding and plane manufacturing industries in the province in a new project.
The new US$700 million project is currently under consideration. If approved, this will be Posco’s second project in the province.
Several other steel projects will restart this year after enterprises halted progress during the global economic crisis.
Italian Danieli Group, one of the world’s largest suppliers of equipment for steel projects, signed an agreement last month to take part in Vietnam’s first hot strip steel mill with an annual capacity of 2 million tons.
Following the agreement with state-run Vietnam Steel Corporation (Vnsteel), Danieli will hold a 20% stake in the US$550 million mill to be located in southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province’s Phu My Industrial Park. Construction of the mill, which will churn out two million tons of hot rolled coils per year, will start this year for completion within three years.
The Phu My hot strip mill was conceived in 2007 when India’s Essar Group, Vnsteel and state-run Vietnam Rubber Group agreed to build the factory. At that time, Essar agreed to hold a 65% stake in the mill while Vnsteel had 20% and Vietnam Rubber Group owned 15%.
Last year, Essar quit the project due to the global financial crisis. This led to a reshuffle in the project’s shareholders, which then comprised Vnsteel with a 84% stake, Vietnam Rubber Group with a 15% share and Danang Steel Company with just 1%. With Danieli’s investment in the Phu My hot strip mill, Vnsteel now holds a 64.1% stake in the project.
Meanwhile, Taiwan-invested Guang Lian Steel (Vietnam) Co., Ltd. will restart construction on its steel complex project in the central province of Quang Ngai this year after putting the project on hold for nearly two years.
Hsueh Hung Yi, general director of the company, unveiled the planned resumption in his recent meeting with officials from the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The company, which was established by Taiwanese steel firms Tycoons and E-United, has prepared construction equipment to restart the project this year.
The company will increase investment into its long-delayed project to some US$4.5 billion from the current US$3 billion.
The company will resume work on a drainage system as well. It recently sent a report to the Quang Ngai provincial government to brief the authorities on the progress of the steel project. The report said the steel mill would be operational in late 2012 or early 2013.