By Jane Han
Staff Reporter
South Korean steel giant POSCO completed Friday a 100,000-ton processing plant in Vietnam, a strategic operation that will supply the growing regional demand for automotive and motorbike steel sheets.
The $13.8 million facility, which is an 80-20 joint venture with Mitsubishi's Metal One, will mainly cut and shape steel produced from POSCO's 1.2 million-ton cold-rolled steel plant currently under construction about 100 kilometers east of Ho Chi Minh City, according to the world's fourth-largest steel maker. The cold-rolled mill will begin output in the second half of next year.
POSCO said consumption of steel sheets for cars and motorcycles in Southeast Asia is on a steady rise, enabling them to secure stable sales in the region.
Last week, the company broke ground for another processing center, with an annual capacity to produce 120,000 tons of steel goods, near Bangkok, Thailand. Its production is set to be fed to major global carmakers, such as Nissan and Honda.
While this plant is set to be completed by January 2009, the latest completion in Vietnam becomes POSCO's 29th processing plant overseas. The steel group said it aims to build up to 40 to increase production in some of the more lucrative areas.