Japan Trading Firms Expand Vietnam Steel Processing Base

Japanese trading firms invest into steel service centers in Vietnam aggressively. Sumitomo Corporation and Nippon Steel Trading add new plant while JFE Shoji Trade and Metal One started new plant. They try to improve the steel supply chain including delivery when the users of Japanese transplants expand the operations. Sumitomo Corp. has largest network in Vietnam since the firm established Saigon Steel Service & Processing near Ho Chi Minh in 1997. Sumitomo Corp. started the flat steel supply from coil center in Hanoi in 2002. The firm started the operation of Danang plant in November 2006. The firm has around 170,000 tonnes of processing capacity in the country, which is the largest volume in Vietnamese operations by Japanese trading firms.Nippon Steel Trading started operation of NS Saigon Coil Center near Ho Chi Minh in 2004 to process electrical steel and cold and coated steel. Nippon Steel Trading launched NS Hanoi Steel Service in September 2006 to serve appliances and office equipment makers. JFE Shoji Trade increases the operation of JFE Shoji Steel Vietnam to annual 48,000 tonnes in 2011 after the start in July 2006. Metal One launched Hanoi Metal One Steel Center in June 2007. Vietnam Steel Association estimates the domestic flat steel consumption increased by 13.4% to 3.357 million tonnes in 2006 from 2005. Japanese appliances makers expand the operations recently including third plant of Canon and new plant of NIDEC Corporation. Japanese trading firms try to meet the growing demand through better service bases.