South Korea's leading steelmaker POSCO has opened its cold rolling steel mill in the Phy My industrial zone in Vung Tau near Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam, in order to meet growing demand in the Southeast Asian market.
Accordingly, having starting its trial run at its rolling mill in April this year, the new mill in question, on which construction commenced in August 2007, will produce 1.2 million tons of cold rolled steel per year. 700,000 mt of cold rolled products which will be used in automobiles and motorcycles and 500,000 mt of construction materials will be sold in Vietnam and neighboring Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand and Malaysia. The US$528 million plant, the largest of its kind in Southeast Asia, is located in a 158 hectare complex that includes a private harbor.
POSCO's second-stage plans for Vietnam include building a hot rolling steel mill with an annual production capacity of 3 million metric tons after 2012.