Marubeni-Itochu Steel Increases Equipment of Coil Centers in Thailand

Marubeni-Itochu Steel Inc. announced on Wednesday that it decided to integrate the plants and increase the equipment in United Coil Center (UCC), the steel sheet related company in Thailand, in order to deal with expansion of the demand of steel sheets in the nation. The firm will put current 3 plants in UCC into 2 plants. On the other hand, it will expand capacity BangPakong factory to introduce the brand-new equipment such as large leveler and blanking line. Marubeni-Itochu will increase the processing capacity to 550,000 tonnes per year from current 480,000 tonnes per year and storage capacity to 100,000 tonnes from current 60,000 tonnes after completion of the investment. The firm aims at launching business under that capacity in the end of 2006. The investment is about 1.2 billion yen. Marubeni-Itochu has 83% of UCC’s share. Its head office is located in Banplee. UCC has processing capacity at 480,000 tonnes per year in 3 coil centers Banplee, BangPakong, and its factory in Bangkok. UCC supplies the consumers of cars and the home appliance related with its processed products. Marubeni-Itochu will sell off its factory in Bangkok, whose lot area is about 5,000 square meters. Meanwhile, the firm will buy out neighboring area of primo BangPakong factory, whose lot area is about 10,000 square meters. Marubeni-Itochu will introduce the new equipment of large leveler whose board thickness is 0.6-4.5 millimeters and width is 1,600 millimeters at maximum, mini-leveler whose thickness is 2.3-6.0 millimeters and width is 750 millimeters, and blanking whose weight is 800 tonnes. On the other hand, it will sell off and discard old equipment of large leveler and slitter, and renew equipment at its factory in Bangkok. The lot area of BangPakong factory will be about 50,000 square meters after increase of the equipment.