China Steel to Get 5% Share in Dongbu Metal

China Steel Corporation in Taiwan decided to purchase 5% share in Dongbu Metal of South Korea for around 1.3 billion New Taiwan Dollars on Monday. The investment in South Korean major ferromanganese maker belonged to Dongbu Group is the first shareholding in ferromanganese maker for China Steel. The firm aims to secure ferromanganese for automotive steel output expansion and the increase of blast furnace of its subsidiary, Dragon Steel Corporation.

China Steel decided to get 1% share of iron ore mining company, Namisa in Brazil in 2009 while the steel maker has interests in coal mine in Australia and limestone mine in Taiwan. The firm aims to reduce raw material purchasing cost by the investment to the mines and resource development companies.

All of China Steel group’s 5 blast furnaces including No.1 blast furnace of Dragon steel are in operation. The group has annual 14 million tonnes of raw steel output capacity. The group plans to start No.2 blast furnace of Dragon Steel by the end of 2012 to expand the capacity to 17 million tonnes in order to meet growing demand in China and Southeast Asia.