Sahaviriya Steel to Rush Blast Furnace Plan

Sahaviriya Steel Industries’ CEO Wit Viriyaprapaikit said to a reporter of Japan Metal Bulletin on Thursday the firm will build blast furnaces with annual 10 million tonnes of output capacity after environmental approval of Thailand Board of Investment. The firm tries to build two 5 million tonnes furnaces in southern part of Thailand as a part of the 30 million tonnes integrated steel vision. Mr. Wit said the firm will improve the cost competitiveness through the integrated operation along with existing hot rolling facilities when slab sourcing is getting severer both in price and availability. The firm launched annual 30 million tonnes of integrated steel plan with 5 phases in 15 years from 2004. The firm has prepared for the plan to get land, ground making and port construction. However, due to delay of the environmental approval under political confusion, the plan is 2 years behind original plan. The firm submitted the application again waiting for the approval. The firm constructs the furnaces in 2 years after the approval. The first phase is to build a US$ 2.4 billion furnace in Bang Saphan, where the firm operates the hot rolling plant, to make slab and billet. The second phase is to build second US$ 2.4 billion furnace in Chumphon to make slab. The firm operates annual 4 million tonnes of hot rolling mill with offshore sourcing semi-finished steel. The firm plans to expand the hot rolling operation to annual 6.5 million tonnes and the plate mill operation from 1 million tonnes to 3.4 million tonnes. With higher sourcing cost, the net profit in 2007 was 64.6% lower at 952.97 million baht from 2006.