October 07, 2008

G Steel resumes plan for steel plant

It is reported that Malaysian HR major G Steel will resume its ambitious steel project this year after a two year delay due to the country's political uncertainties.

G Steel has signed an agreement for providing technology and technical assistance to Korean Dongbu Steel Co, which is an operator of a 2.5 million tonne compact mini mill in Korea.

As per reports, G Steel is negotiating with potential strategic partners, including firms from China, India, Japan, Korea and Russia, to jointly develop the Rayong based project.

Dr Somsak Leeswadtrakul CEO of G Steel said ''I hope our talks with our business partner will be done within the middle of this year.”

Dr Somsak said the project delay had caused investment costs to increase by 10% to about THB 33 billion from the previous budget of THB 30 billion. G Steel had obtained investment privileges from the Board of Investment several years ago for a THB 30 billion investment in an iron plant with annual capacity of 2.5 million tonnes. A source from the BoI said G Steel needed to resubmit the application with the new budget figures, although project details such as location and capacity would stay the same.