Hainan Haiwoo Tinplate Starts Commercial Operation of No.2 Plating Line

JFE Steel formally announced on Monday that Hainan Haiwoo Tinplate Industry, a joint venture to produce tin plate in China, started commercial operation of no.2 electrolytic tin plating line at an annual capacity of 200,000 tonnes. The JV’s output capacity reaches 350,000 tonnes as a total of no.1 and no.2 electrolytic tin plating lines. The JV meets increasing local demand from beverage and food cans.

Eiji Hayashida, JFE Steel’s vice president, attended the opening ceremony on 25 July. He showed an expectation that Hainan Haiwoo Tinplate Industry grows up to the world top level tinplate supplier with high competitiveness in both quality and volume while the JV continues stable tinplate supply to local market.

No.2 electrolytic tin plating line is larger and faster than no.1 plating line. The JV introduced local technology and equipment for no.2 line on the base of no.1 line’s construction and operation experiences. No.2 line entered commercial operation only after the groundbreaking ceremony in April 2008.

The JV was established in 1995 and started operation in 1997. JFE Steel holds 16% equity in the JV while Metalone, Japanese steel trading house, holds 18%. Chinese companies have 37% shares and Korean companies have 29% in the JV. The annual revenue was 1.1 billion yuan (approximately 14.6 billion yen) for 2008.