SteelOrbis Shanghai Taiwan's Tycoons Group Enterprise (Tycoons) has received official approval for its plans to set up a joint steel mill in Vietnam with
China's seventh-largest mill, the Shandong province-based Jinan Iron & Steel Group (Jigang). The business license for the new steel mill was issued by the Vietnamese Prime Minister himself on September 18. Tycoons has thus become the first Taiwanese company to succeed in obtaining a license to build a steel mill overseas. Meanwhile, this is also the first time for a Taiwanese steel group to cooperate with a steel group from mainland
China in building mills overseas. The license gives Tycoons and Jigang a land lease right for 69 years to operate the plant on 233 hectares of land. The plant is expected to begin mass
production four years from now. The two companies will invest approximately $545.45 million in the
construction of the proposed steel mill which has a projected capacity of two million metric tons of
slab per year. Tycoons will hold a 60 percent stake while Jigang will hold 40 percent in the joint venture. The two companies are also planning additional
investments after 2010 in order to increase capacity further. The joint venture had already initiated its new project in April this year with a $20 million investment in a rolling plant in Vietnam to produce cold-rolled steel coil and hot dip
galvanized iron. The companies are planning to sell 75 percent of output in the domestic market, with the remaining 25 percent destined for export.