Belarus has opened an international tender to choose an investor for the implementation of the project for the construction of a new sheet-rolling mill with a designed annual capacity of 1.2 million mt of hot rolled sheets in coils.
Currently, Belarus doesn't have its own capacities for the production of sheets, and the construction of the mill will allow the country to decrease, and in some cases to fully exclude the sheets imports, and also to provide the domestic market with qualitative new type of products.
The new mill will be specialized in the production of hot rolled sheets of 800 mm to 1,850 mm width and 0.8 mm to 25 mm thickness, which will be used for the production of welded metal constructions, welded pipes, cases and boilers, which will operate under pressure, as well as for the production of stamped parts for different purposes.
The juridical status of the new mill will be a joint venture in terms of a joint-stock company, with the investor to hold from 50 to 100 percent stake. However, Belarus may accept also the construction of the new mill with 100 percent participation of a foreign capital, and in full property of a foreign company-investor.
The proposals for the tender, opened on October 3 2009, should be presented till the January 4 2010.
As SteelOrbis previously reported, the proposal for the construction of the new sheet-rolling mill was placed before the Ministry of Industry of Belarus by Byelorussian Iron and Steel Works (BMZ) in October 2008. The estimated cost of the project in question was about $2 billion.