Kobe Steel and China’s Angang Steel Company, a subsidiary of Anshan Iron & Steel Group Complex, signed a joint venture agreement today in Anshan, Liaoning Province, to establish a joint venture in China to produce and sell advanced cold-rolled high-strength steel sheet for automobiles.
The new company, to be called Kobelco Angang Auto Steel, will construct a continuous annealing line within Angang’s steelworks and have a production capacity of 600,000t per year.
Following incorporation procedures to establish the joint venture, plans call for production to begin in early 2016. Total investments are anticipated to reach EUR 0.2B.
Kobelco Angang will be headquartered at Angang’s steelworks, Anshan Base, in Anshan, Liaoning Province. The continuous annealing line will make cold-rolled high-strength steel with a tensile strength of 590 MPa or higher. Angang will supply the joint venture with the substrate coils.
The new company will be capitalised at EUR 83.6M. Angang will own 51% of the venture. Kobe Steel plans to hold a 49% share through Kobelco (China) Holding.
