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Project is in a pickle
A big question mark still hangs over the long-delayed Ca Na steel complex in southern Ninh Thuan Province. Malaysian investor Lion Group has failed to submit project development plan to meet a province’s deadline.
“It is nearly a month after the deadline was fixed for the group to answer our request, which was January 5. It is time for us [The department] to submit it to the Ninh Thuan province People’s Committee to find a solution for this issue,” a provincial Planning and Investment Department source said.
The people’s committee is supposed to soon meet to discuss the problem. Lion Group and state-run Vinashin in September, 2008 received an investment certificate to build the $9.8 billion complex, which will cover 1,650 hectares of land and 330ha of sea. Lion Group holds a 70 per cent stake in the venture.
The project is divided into four stages and construction will last from 2008 to 2025. In the first stage (2008-2010), which will require $2.75 billion, a complex to produce 4.5 million tonnes of steel, two thermal power plants and a seaport, which can handle 15 million tonnes of goods per year, will be put into operation.
The project’s ground-breaking ceremony was carried out two months later in November, 2008. However, no further construction has followed. In 2009, Lion Group informed the Ninh Thuan’s authorities to delay the project because of the global financial crisis.
“According to some members of the Malaysia’s Iron and Steel Industry Federation (Misif), who visited Vietnam in early December 2009, there is a little possibility for Lion Group to start the Ca Na project because of its financial distress,” said Pham Chi Cuong, chairman of the Vietnam Steel Association (VSA).
“Lion Group is also facing financial shortages to carry out other steel projects in Malaysia, worth hundreds of millions of US dollars, not to mention the $10 billion needed for the Ca Na project in Ninh Thuan,” Cuong said. The province has so far spent nearly VND200 billion ($10.81 million) on compensation for local residents.
Some other foreign-invested steel projects are also under close watch of the Vietnamese authorities, including Taiwan’s Guang Lian Steel (Vietnam) Co., Ltd’s $3 billion steel project in Quang Ngai province, Taiwan Formosa’s $7.8 billion project and Indian Tata Steel project in central Ha Tinh province.
VietNamNet, VIR
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