China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼) yesterday said it plans to invest NT$285 million (US$9.69 million) to form a joint venture with China-based Enley Auto Parts Co (英利汽車部件) to produce a new steel product to make car skeletons.
CSC, the nation’s only integrated steel maker, said it will have a 30 percent stake in the new venture.
The two companies will build a research center and the headquarters of the new venture in Taiwan, along with another plant in Changchun, China, CSC said.
The division in Taiwan will have a capacity of 500,000 units of hot stamping steel product by 2016, while the Changchun division will have a capacity of 1.5 million units by 2015 and 3 million units in 2017, it said.
The company did not provide information about when the projects would start.
“The new product can enhance the safety of cars while reducing their weight,” China Steel vice president Steve Lee (李慶超) said by telephone. “China Steel will provide its hot-rolled and cold-rolled sheets and coils as materials for these plants.”
Greater Kaohsiung-based China Steel established a research team in December 2011 to study hot stamping in the making of car skeletons after the method was used in the US and Europe.
To fund future investments, China Steel’s board yesterday decided to issue NT$30 billion in corporate bonds by the end of next year, Lee said. This year the company issued NT$20 billion in bonds, he said
The company has also decided to extend the operation of one of its steel rod production lines for another year as demand for the products is high. It said renovation of the production line, which can make 300,000 tonnes of steel rods and bars a year, will start next month and be completed by January 2016.
China Steel reported revenue of NT$290.11 billion in the first 10 months, down 3.98 percent from NT$302.14 billion a year ago.
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