China Steel Corp (中鋼), the nation’s largest steelmaker, yesterday held a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of a Taiwan-Japan joint venture in Vietnam as the company continued to expand its overseas reach, the company said in an e-mailed statement.
The Vietnamese cold-rolled steel mill, named China Steel Sumikin Vietnam Joint Stock Co (CSVC, 中鋼住金越南公司), is a joint venture between CSC and its Japanese partner, Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd.
“With a total investment of US$1.15 billion, CSVC is the company’s largest overseas investment project,” China Steel chairman Tsou Juo-chi (鄒若齊) said in the statement.
Aside from meeting the demand of its Vietnamese clients, CSVC will also supply steel products used in vehicles and household appliances to clients in neighboring Southeast Asian countries, Tsou said.
China Steel holds a 51 percent stake in the Vietnamese project, with Sumitomo Metal owning a 40 percent stake. Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corp (台塑河靜鋼鐵興業) owns 5 percent, while Chun Yuan Steel Industry Co (春源鋼鐵) and Hsin Kuang Steel Co (新光鋼鐵) own 2 percent each.
Aside from Tsou, the groundbreaking ceremony was also attended by China Steel president Ou Chaur-hwa (歐朝華), Sumitomo Metal president Hiroshi Tomono and other representatives from Taiwan, Japan and Vietnam.
Tomono said CSVC is committed to providing high-quality steel products to Vietnam and ASEAN, contributing to the region’s economy, according to the statement.
The Vietnamese project comes as the Taiwanese steelmaker accelerates its overseas investment given a saturated domestic market.
On Aug. 23, China Steel’s board approved a plan to build electrical steel sheet production lines in Bharuch District in the Indian state of Gujarat for US$66.58 million.
The Indian project will start construction this month and will begin test runs in October 2013, China Steel said at the time.
CSVC, which has an annual capacity of 1.2 million tonnes, is expected to complete construction of the plant at My Xuan A2 Industrial Park in Vietnam’s Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province by the end of next year.
The Vietnamese project is led by Wong Chao-tung (翁朝棟) and is scheduled to start test runs in 2013, yesterday’s statement said.
The company posted a pretax profit of NT$1.83 billion (US$62.8 million) last month, down 39.2 percent from a year earlier and 11.42 percent from the previous month.
In the first eight months of the year, the company’s pretax profit fell to NT$21.2 billion from NT$34.78 billion a year earlier, company data released on Tuesday showed.
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