Yamato Kogyo Eyes Joint H-Beam Plant in Bahrain

Yamato Kogyo announced on Thursday the firm signed letter of intent with Gulf Industrial Investment of Bahrain, which is subsidiary of Gulf Investment Corporation of Kuwait, to establish H-beam making joint venture with annual 600,000 tonnes of output capacity in Middle East. They start the study to build integrated plant from direct reduced iron to H-beam in the growing market. Gulf Industrial Investment will control 51% of the joint venture with 49% share by Yamato Kogyo. They will build direct reduced iron plant with 1.5 million tonnes of annual output capacity, steel making shop with 650,000 tonnes of capacity and section mill with 600,000 tonnes of capacity. The site is likely to be next of pellet plant of Gulf Industrial Investment in Bahrain. They expect they reach definitive agreement in October. Yamato Kogyo decided to seek another growth in Middle East after the firm established the operations in USA, Thailand and South Korea along with Japan. The firm tries to expand the offshore business after the announced expansion plan at Siam Yamato Steel in Thailand. Yamato Kogyo posted record recurring and net profit for the year to March 2007 part of due to favorable results in USA and offshore businesses.