Foreign investors eye huge steel projects

Vietnam Steel Corporation (VSC) will soon sign a joint venture agreement with India’s Tata Steel to build a steel complex whose total investment capital may amount to US$3.5 billion.

Vietnam Steel Corporation (VSC) will soon sign a joint venture agreement with India’s Tata Steel to build a steel complex whose total investment capital may amount to US$3.5 billion.

A VSC official said the two partners would build the complex in Vung Ang Economic Zone in central Ha Tinh Province. The complex will include a steel mill with annual output of 4.5 million tons. It will refine iron ore from Thach Khe mine. The feedstock will be ready for processing following the recent establishment of a mining joint stock company to tap the ore there.

VSC as the country’s biggest steel maker has been involved in many large-scale steel projects. In March, it was awarded an investment certificate to develop a US$$527 million hot-rolled steel mill in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau with India’s Essar and Vietnam General Rubber group.

Meanwhile, E-United Group, one of Taiwan’s leading iron and steel conglomerates, is planning a US$2.8-billion project to build a stainless steel mill in Vietnam.

Company officials have visited the southern province of Dong Nai for the second time to look into the investment environment there. The group plans to develop the project on 500 hectares if the province ensures that there is sufficient infrastructure and the project site is near a river so that it can build a port.

The planned mill will also manufacture hot- and cold-rolled steel. It will be developed in three phases with a total output of some five million tons of carbon steel and one million tons of stainless steel a year.

(Source: SGT)