Posco, the world&rsquos third largest steelmaker from South Korea, has submitted to the Vietnamese government the feasibility study on a US$5.378 billion steel complex in central Khanh Hoa province, state media reported.
Of the total investment, US$4.38 billion will be spent on a steel mill and US$413 million on a port.
The steel factory will be capable of turning out 4 million tons of hot rolled steel in the first phase (from 2012) and its capacity will be raised to 8 million tons a year after 2016. It will only use Posco&rsquos most advanced technology of Finex.
Posco will employ 1.3 million workers during five years of construction. While operating until 2016, the facility will make a production value of US$5.2 billion a year on average and jobs for 146,000 laborers.
Posco hopes to receive approval in November 2008 to complete the construction of the steel mill in March 2013.
Director of the project Chung-Myong said that Posco has chosen the Hon Gom island in the Van Phong gulf, in Van Ninh district because of favorable conditions to develop a port to serve transportation of raw materials to feed the factory as well as steel products.
The steel mill will use some 14 million of raw materials each year for its operation, including more than 6.3 million tons iron ore, 5.5 million tons of coal and other materials.
In addition to the steel complex, Posco is planning to build a 1,000-MW electricity plant in the area. However, the project has not yet detailed, said Chung-Myong.
Currently, Posco has three steel joint ventures in Vietnam, including Posvina, starting operation from April 1992 to produce 40,000 tons of construction steel a year VPS, operating from January 1994 with a capacity of 200,000 tons of steel bars and Vinapipe running from May 1993 and capable of turning out 30,000 tons of steel pipes a year. (Investment, Vietnam Economic Times)
Vietnamese
