Nippon Steel announced on Friday the firm formally established Wisco-Nippon Steel Tinplate (WNST), a joint venture to manufacture tin plate in Wuhan, China, in cooperation with Wuhan Iron & Steel on October 25 and held an establishment ceremony on November 3. Factory construction will start in the first half of 2012 and operation will commence in fiscal 2013.
WNST will have a continuous annealing line with output capacity at 400,000 tonnes per year and a tin plating line with output capacity at 200,000 tonnes per year inside Wuhan Iron & Steel’s iron works. Capex totals 1.85 billion yuan (approximately 23 billion yen). WNST’s capital fund is 740 million yuan, fifty-fifty controlled by Nippon Steel and Wuhan Iron & Steel. WNST supplies high quality tin plate to food and drink can makers mainly in western China. Mr. Shoji Muneoka, president of Nippon Steel, attended the ceremony on November 3 and celebrated the first JV establishment in both companies’ 40-year partnership history. Mr. Deng Qilin, president of Wuhan Iron & Steel, emphasized WNST has significant implication on both companies’ higher competitiveness and more mutually beneficial partnership and he believes WNST’s full success based on long-year cooperation and confidence between Nippon Steel and Wuhan Iron & Steel.