‘Nothing decided’ yet about stake in Formosa Ha Tinh Steel, JFE says

Japan’s JFE Steel has once again denied it has made any final decision to invest in Formosa Ha Tinh Steel, a major integrated steel mill that is being built in Vietnam by Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics Group (FPG).

Paragraph entered by Atlantic migration, in order for SteelFirst articles to display correctly on Metal Bulletin.

“Although we are considering participating in the project, nothing has been decided in the present,” a company spokesman told Steel First late on Friday July 24.

In a report published that same day, Japanese business newspaper Nikkei said JFE Steel would pay around ¥30 billion ($242 million) to take a 5% stake in the project.

JFE Steel had previously denied a news report which stated it would acquire a 25% share in the Vietnamese mill.

Formosa Ha Tinh Steel, the biggest greenfield project in Southeast Asia, will start commissioning its rolling operations by the end of 2015 and is expected to fire up its first blast furnace in March 2016, company officials told Steel First in the end of May.

The mill will have a crude steel capacity of 7 million tpy by 2017, and will produce slab, billet, hot rolled coil, rebar and wire rod.

In April, JFE Steel’s parent company, JFE Holdings, unveiled plans to spend as much as ¥200 billion ($1.61 billion) in overseas investments over the next three years, with most of the capital targeted to Asia.

China Steel Corp (CSC), Taiwan’s biggest steelmaker, has decided to pay $939 million to raise its stake in Formosa Ha Tinh Steel to 25% from 5%.

What to read next
Fastmarkets will amend the specifications of its existing price assessments for Europe/US lithium spot battery-grade and technical-grade lithium hydroxide and carbonate to remove the US footprint, and will launch weekly price assessments for spot battery-grade and technical-grade lithium hydroxide and carbonate for the United States and Canada on Thursday April 4.
This initiative marks a significant step towards reducing industrial greenhouse gas emissions and championing the US in the global decarbonization effort
The most recent financial results published by base metals mining companies highlight just how inflation is affecting profit margins, with increasing wages, financing costs and input prices all hitting profits, sources told Fastmarkets in the week to Thursday March 28
Century Aluminum is among those selected to start award negotiations for up to $500 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act funding to build a new aluminium smelter, the company said on Monday March 25
Fastmarkets launched its first price assessment for MB-FEC-0024 Ferro-chrome 50% Cr, delivered Europe, $/lb Cr on Tuesday March 26.
Fastmarkets has amended the publication date of the latest European charge and high-carbon ferro-chrome benchmark to reflect the date from which the benchmark applies after the price was erroneously published on the date it was announced (March 25).