Malaysian Southern Steel targets high output level

Malaysian Southern Steel targets high output level

According to market reports, Southern Steel Bhd of Malaysia plans to reach an annual production capacity of 1.3 million tons until end of 2004 and to surpass that level next year by increasing productivity and workforce as well as eliminating bottlenecks. A company official stated that it was the diversification of their products which protected the company from the fall in steel prices derived by China's slowing down economy. The official also said domestic pricing of steel products will be more in line with the price of the international market following the implementation of automatic pricing mechanism (APM), which is completed by Malaysian government as previously reported by SteelOrbis. Southern Steel has a 60% share of the wire rod market in Malaysia. It can be said that company's research and development investments of around RM 50 million ($13.5 million) for quality wire rod production for almost last seven years paid off.