JFE Steel Corporation announced that it would be acquiring a 5% stake in Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corporation (FHS), a joint-venture company that is currently constructing Vietnam’s first integrated steelworks. The project is being spearheaded by FHS’s founder, Formosa Plastics Group (FPG), a Taiwanese integrated supplier of petrochemicals. JFE Steel and FPG expect to formalise the investment agreement in the near future. JFE Steel will also provide the project with technical support.
The integrated steelworks will include a hot rolling mill, blast furnaces and steelmaking facility on a site measuring more than 2,000 hectares in Ha Tinh province. Facilities will begin operating sequentially from this autumn. FHS is investing USD 10.5B in the first phase of the project. Initial crude steel output capacity is expected to be approximately 7MTPA.
Photo courtesy of JFE STEEL
Under the JFE Group’s fifth medium-term business plan from April 2015 to March 2018, JFE Steel aims to increase annual steel sales to 40M tons. The company’s investment in FHS will be one of its first major steps toward achieving this target. Once the investment agreement is finalised, JFE Steel plans to begin working with FHS to get the new integrated steelworks operating stably as soon as possible. Going forward, JFE Steel expects to expand the JFE’s business network by selling the products made at FHS to our customers.
