YUSCO Plans Full Capacity Operation at Guangzhou Plant

Taiwanese stainless flat steel maker, Yie United Steel (YUSCO) plans full capacity operation at the subsidiary, Liangzhong (Guangzhou) Stainless Steel (LISCO) at annual 2 million tonnes of raw steel output in 2012. LISCO tries to follow growing demand in China by developing the market mainly for 200 series stainless. YUSCO plans to increase the Taiwanese production by 16.7% to 700,000 tonnes of cold rolled products to serve buyers in Southeast Asia.

YUSCO’s official said to a reporter of Japan Metal Bulletin the firm tries to develop Chinese inner part and western part of the market. The firm tries to develop chrome series products and other high grade products when higher nickel price encourages the users to shift to nickel less products.

Chinese stainless demand increased by 3.4% to 9.74 million tonnes in 2011 from 2010. The demand hit record 3.43 million tonnes in January-March 2012 when the demand increases for 400 series and 200 series.

LISCO doubled the output capacity to annual 2 million tonnes in 2009. The firm produced 1.6 million tonnes in raw steel in 2011 thanks to higher sales for 200 series products, which represented 50% of the production.

YUSCO produced the capacity level of 1 million tonnes of raw steel in Taiwan in 2010. However, the production decreased to 800,000 tonnes in 2011 due to impact of European financial crisis. The firm plans same level of raw steel output in 2012 as 2011 while the firm increases the rolled products output to meet higher export demand.

The group has no expansion plan for stainless making while the firm tries to realize investment in nickel mining for better competitiveness.