On June 9, a formal signing ceremony took place in the city of Changsha in the Chinese province of Hubei for the construction of a new auto sheet and electrical steel project expected to cost a total investment of RMB 10 billion (US$1.463 billion) . The signatories included Hubei Province Loudi municipal government, the management committee of Loudi economic development zone, global steel giant ArcelorMittal and local steelmaker Hunan Hualing Iron and Steel Co., Ltd.
According to the agreement, Hualing Group, Hualing Steel and ArcelorMittal will together set up a joint venture called Hualing-ArcelorMittal Auto Sheet Co., Ltd with a planned annual production capacity of 1.2 million mt of cold rolled auto sheets. Furthermore, Hualing Group and ArcelorMittal will also build another joint venture called Hualing-ArcelorMittal Electrical Steel Co., Ltd, which will mainly produce grain-oriented and non-grain-oriented electrical steels with a designed annual capacity of 400,000 mt and 100,000 mt respectively.