According to local Vietnamese sources, Japan's fourth largest steelmaker Kobe Steel Ltd and Japanese trading house Sojitz Corp. plan to set up a $300 million joint venture to develop a project for iron production in Vietnam.
The Japanese companies, which signed a memorandum with the Vietnamese government in 2007 to study the project, will build a plant to produce iron nuggets with an initial investment of $1 million to study the development of iron mines.
Japan's Daido Steel Co. may also join the project as a distributor of the mill's products.