South Korean steelmaker POSCO and Turkey's Assan Celik, subsidiary of Kibar Holding held the groundbreaking ceremony today, on September 28, for their joint project stainless cold rolling plant to be built in Kocaeli Organized Industry Zone, Izmit, Turkey.
The project in question was launched as a joint venture between POSCO and Kibar Holding in January this year. After obtaining the Competition Board's approval in March, the main equipment contract has been signed with POSCO's engineering subsidiary POSCO E&C.
According to the company statement, the cold rolling plant with a designed capacity of 200,000 mt per year is expected to start production in May 2013.
Kibar Holding CEO Ali Kibar stated that they aim to increase the initial capacity of 200,000 mt to 600,000 mt in the second year and they expect to increase the capacity of the plant continuously in the coming years.
POSCO CEO Chung Joon Yang indicated that stainless steel demand of Turkey and its neighboring countries is expected to exceed 800,000 mt by 2014, adding that the Kocaeli plant is the biggest Korean investment in Turkey.