Arcelor has sold its entire stake (96%) in Thainox to Prayudh Mahagitsiri, a Thai industrialist, currently chairman of the board of Thainox and partner of Usinor/Arcelor since the creation of Thainox. Arcelor will continue to benefit from an agreement under which Arcelor will supply at market prices most of the raw materials required by Thainox. At the same time, Thainox will not only have the advantage of exporting through Arcelor’s sales network, the, but will also have access to the expertise of the Arcelor group thanks to a technical assistance contract. Thainox Steel was created in 1991. The factory comprises two cold rolling mills supplemented by a bright annealing line, a strip annealing line and a slitting line. The sole producer of cold-laminated stainless steel sheets in Thailand and throughout the entire ASEAN region, today this factory has a cold-laminating capacity of 180,000 tonnes a year, a volume greater than the initial nominal capacity of 160,000 tonnes a year, generating sales of the order of USD 300 million in 2003.
