Taiwan's China Steel Corp and Japan's Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd plan to open a joint venture steel plant in Vietnam, China Steel announced on Thursday.China Steel's board directors approved the investment plan at a board meeting, and Sumitomo Metals also announced the joint venture plan on its website Thursday.
As demand for steel in South-east Asia is rising, the two firms plan to build the joint venture as the supply base for ASEAN (Association of South-east Asian Nations) countries, China Steel said.
Building the plant in Vietnam can avoid tariff barriers as Vietnam is a member of ASEAN, it added. The two firms will invest 1.15 billion dollars - with China Steel shouldering 293 million dollars - to build the plant in the suburb of Ho Chi Minh City in south Vietnam. The plant is scheduled to go into operation in 2011 with an annual output of 1.7 million tons of steel. Sumitomo said on its website that the joint venture's equipments will including a cold rolling mill, continuous galvanising line and electromagnetic steel sheet production equipment.