Southeast Asia is expected to increase its self-sufficiency in 2018 once more flat steel producers start up their plants. The demand for slab is also expected to increase once the production lines are up and running.
Vietnam's Hoa Phat Group is targeting a 2019 start-up for its 4-million-tonne-per-year integrated steel mill in central Vietnam. Located in Quang Ngai province, the $2.7-billion mill will have at least three continuous casters and two rolling mills. The project will consist of two phases: The first is expected to produce 1 million tonnes of construction steel and 1 million tonnes of rolled steel annually, while the second phase will produce 2 million tpy of hot-rolled flat steel bar for machinery manufacturing.Vietnam's Formosa Ha Tinh aims to double its steel production capacity by March 2018, a source with knowledge of the matter told Metal Bulletin on Tuesday October 17.The plans involve the installation of two new blast furnaces, which would take the company's crude steelmaking capacity to 7 million tpy from the current 3.5 million tpy. This will allow its plant to produce 5.2 million tpy of flat steel,...