Japanese JFE Steel Corporation and Guangzhou Iron and Steel Enterprises Holdings Ltd (Guangzhou Steel) have signed a joint venture agreement in order to add new facilities to their partnership in Nansha Development Zone of China's southern province Guangzhou.
The two steelmakers had jointly established Guangzhou JFE Steel Sheet Company Ltd. (GJSS) in December 2003 in order to produce hot-dip galvanized steel sheets for the automobile and electrical appliances industries of China. No.1 continuous galvanizing line of this partnership started operating in March 2006 with 400,000 tons per annum capacity.
In order to meet the expanding demand, JFE and Guangzhou Steel have now reached an agreement to build additional production facilities including a 1.8 million tons per annum capacity cold rolling mill, a one million tons per annum capacity continuous annealing line, and 400,000 tons per annum capacity No.2 continuous galvanizing line.
The joint venture has obtained approval for the expansion project from the National Development and Reform Commission on June 22, 2007. The new facilities are planned to commence production in 2010.