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Site hiccup for $10.8m venture
The clock is ticking on a landmark ferromanganese manufacturing project’s race to operate in the central Ha Tinh province’s Vung Ang Economic Zone.
Manganese Mineral Joint Stock Company is cooperating with Taiwan-backed Stanco International Corporation to manufacture ferromanganese, an important material for steel manufacturing.
Thai Van Hoa, Vice Chairman of the zone’s authority, said the two companies had already worked with the authority to find a suitable location for the $10.8 million project.
“But they have not returned to the zone for two months. The locations they temporarily chose have already been given to other investors, who are quickly expediting the construction of their projects,” said Hoa, who is also Director of Ha Tinh Investment Promotion Centre.
“The slowness of this project could mean they [the firms] may not have an opportunity to do business here,” Hoa said. Manganese Mineral’s Director Nguyen Dinh Lan said that the two companies were designing the project and its environmental protection report.
“It is expected that the designing will be completed soon and will be licenced and constructed within this year. The province’s authorities said they wholly supported this joint venture,” Lan said. But, Hoa said: “We cannot wait for this project too long, while many other investors are thirsty for locations here. At present, most of the zone’s land has already been filled with many projects.”
According to Manganese Mineral, after completion, the project would manufacture more than 50,000 tonnes of ferromanganese per year, which would be provided for steel-making projects within the zone.
“However, the products will in the short term be exported and sold to steel-making factories throughout the country because the projects in Vung Ang have yet to come online,” Lan said. The Manganese Mineral project would use raw materials from Ha Tinh’s manganese ores. Some types of other materials unavailable in Vietnam would also be imported for the project, Lan said.
In late December 2009, Manganese Mineral’s leadership came to Stanco’s head office in Shanghai and clinched a memorandum of understanding on establishing the joint venture.
While Manganese Mineral specialises in trading and processing manganese and assorted materials for steel-making, Stanco engages in raw materials for footwear insoles, rubber fillers, ceramics, fiberglass, paper-making, electric wire and casting.
In late November 2009, Cao Bang Manganese Joint Stock Company also joined hands with a Chinese company to put a $1.72 million ferromanganese manufacturing factory into operation in the northern mountainous Cao Bang Province’s Hoa An District.
In October 26, 2009, Thai Nguyen Province witnessed the construction of a $15.13 million ferromanganese and siliconemanganese manufacturing factory in the local Song Cong Industrial Park. This project is expected to come online by late 2010.
vietnamnet, VIR
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