Guangzhou JFE Steel Sheet to Run New Capacity at Full in 2013

JFE Steel completes expansion work at Guangzhou JFE Steel Sheet, which is Chinese joint venture with Guangzhou Iron & Steel Enterprises Holdings, by end of the year targeting full capacity operation in fiscal 2013. The joint venture held completion ceremony for the cold rolling mill to establish integrated operation through continuous galvanizing line. The firm adds continuous annealing line and second galvanizing line to expand the annual output capacity to 1.8 million tonnes. The joint venture tries to expand the sales to Chinese automakers and transplants of Japanese, European and US automakers under growing demand.

The new cold rolling mill with annual 1.8 million tonnes of output capacity will start commercial operation in July. After the new annealing line with 1 million tonnes of output capacity starts the commercial operation, the cold rolling mill will ship cold rolled flat steel for automobile and appliances industry. The second galvanizing line with 400,000 tonnes of output capacity is competed by end of the year. The joint venture will produce 800,000 tonnes of galvanizing steel with existing first galvanizing line with 400,000 tonnes of output capacity while the firm ships 1 million tonnes of cold rolled flat steel.

JFE Steel’s president Eiji Hayashida attended the ceremony with Guangzhou Iron & Steel’s chairman Zhang Ruosheng and other around 350 attendees from the partners and the local government. Mr. Hayashida said the new mill will serve Chinese further development by producing efficiently and timely and supplying stably high grade products. Mr. Zhang said the firm expects the new mill will be competitive cold rolling plant in the market to realize the targeted goal.

The joint venture in Nansha district of Guangzhou started operation in 2006 to serve automobile industry. JFE Steel and Guangzhou Iron & Steel have each 50% share in the joint venture with US$ 443 million of capital after the capital increase. The joint venture increases the employees to around 700 after start of the new operations.