Nippon Steel to Build New Tinplate Line at Thai Plant

Nippon Steel, Sumitomo Corporation and Metal One Corporation announced on Wednesday they decided to expand the Thai tinplate making joint maker, Siam Tinplate (STP)’s output capacity by 86% to around 260,000 tonnes per year. STP build new electrolytic tinplating line with 120,000 tonnes of capacity for around 1.4 billion baths starting commercial operation in July 2009. The firm tries to expand the high grade tinplate through the expansion when Thai tinplate market grows by annual 10% mainly for food can. Tinplate demand of Thailand, which is the largest tinplate market in Association of Southeast Asian Nations, increased to 580,000 tonnes in 2006 from 280,000 tonnes in 1997. With the rapid growth, STP keeps full capacity operations. With limited supply capacity in Thailand, the country’s tinplate import increases to annual 200,000 tonnes from 150,000 tonnes level. Nippon Steel decided the expansion with expectation for further growth along with the import replacement. STP will start building new line next to existing line in existing plant located in Ta Phut Industrial Estate, Rayong in early 2008. Nippon Steel Engineering provides the state of the art line. STP expects the 2 lines operation could improve service for users including flexible operation even during maintenance outage. STP’s existing line keeps full capacity operation at annualized 120,000-130,000 tonnes, which is lower than nameplate capacity of 140,000 tonnes due to the higher quality production. STP will procure the black plate from Japan and Nippon Steel’s Thai cold rolling subsidiary, Siam United Steel. The largest shareholder of Sumitomo Corp. has 28.2% interest in STP with 18.4% share by Metal One and 15.6% by Nippon Steel. Japanese group controls 71.5% of STP including 7% by Nippon Steel Trading and 2.2% by Tomiyasu & Co., which is Japanese tinplate distributor, while Thai group has 28.5% share in STP. STP focuses on food can applications, which need higher valued tinplate with thinner gauge and higher surface quality, and the users requested STP to expand the supply.